By:  Sibley                                           S.B. No. 1896

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to reciprocal regulation of insurance companies.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 21, Insurance Code, is

 1-4     amended by adding Article 21.46A to read as follows:

 1-5           Art. 21.46A.  RECIPROCAL REGULATION

 1-6           Sec. 1.  DEFINITIONS.  In this article:

 1-7                 (1)  "Insurance regulatory official" means the

 1-8     insurance department, commissioner, director, or similar official

 1-9     of another state.

1-10                 (2)  "Regulatory requirement or sanction" means any

1-11     regulatory requirement or other obligation of any kind imposed on

1-12     an insurance company as a condition of doing business in a state,

1-13     including a:

1-14                       (A)  sanction;

1-15                       (B)  fine;

1-16                       (C)  penalty;

1-17                       (D)  financial or deposit requirement;

1-18                       (E)  prohibition; or

1-19                       (F)  restriction.

1-20                 (3)  "State" includes a territory of the United States.

1-21           Sec. 2.  REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.  The department may not

1-22     accept an annual statement or other reporting document of an

1-23     insurance company domiciled in another state to satisfy a condition

 2-1     of doing business in this state if the insurance regulatory

 2-2     official of the other state does not accept:

 2-3                 (1)  an annual statement or other reporting document

 2-4     that is in compliance with the law of this state of a company

 2-5     domiciled in this state; or

 2-6                 (2)  any exemption from a requirement of submitting an

 2-7     annual statement or other reporting document applicable under the

 2-8     law of this state to a company domiciled in this state.

 2-9           Sec. 3.  RECIPROCITY.  The department shall impose a

2-10     regulatory requirement or sanction on a company from another state

2-11     as a condition of doing business in this state if the insurance

2-12     regulatory official of the other state imposes, as a condition of

2-13     doing business in the other state, that regulatory requirement or

2-14     sanction on an insurance company that is domiciled in this state

2-15     and that is in compliance with the law and rules of this state.

2-16           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-22     passage, and it is so enacted.