1-1     By:  Wise (Senate Sponsor - Cain)                     H.B. No. 2193

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 21, 1997;

 1-3     April 23, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Economic Development; April 30, 1997, reported favorably by the

 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 11, Nays 0; April 30, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the trust fund requirement for alien surplus lines

 1-9     insurers.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 8(d), Article 1.14-2, Insurance Code, is

1-12     amended to read as follows:

1-13           (d)  In addition to meeting the minimum capital and surplus

1-14     requirements provided by this section, an alien insurer must

1-15     provide evidence that it maintains in the United States an

1-16     irrevocable trust fund in a Federal Reserve System member bank in

1-17     an amount not less than $5.4 [$1.5] million for the protection of

1-18     all its policyholders in the United States and that the trust fund

1-19     consists of cash, securities, letters of credit, or investments of

1-20     substantially the same character and quality as those that are

1-21     eligible investments for the capital and statutory reserves of

1-22     authorized insurers licensed to write like kinds and classes of

1-23     insurance in this state.

1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-25           SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to surplus lines insurance

1-26     placed with an insurer on or after September 1, 1997.  Surplus

1-27     lines insurance placed with an insurer before September 1, 1997, is

1-28     governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective

1-29     date of this Act and that law is continued in effect for that

1-30     purpose.

1-31           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-32     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-33     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-34     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-35     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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