The State Corporation Commission (SCC) has regulatory authority over utilities, insurance, state-chartered financial institutions, securities, retail franchising and railroads. It is the state’s central filing office for corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and Uniform Commercial Code liens. The SCC is an independent branch of state government with delegated administrative, legislative and judicial powers. It acts as a court of record and holds formal hearings when warranted. SCC decisions can only be appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.
Created in 1902 by the Virginia Constitution, the SCC began operations in March 1903. It was initially established to oversee the railroad and telephone and telegraph industries in Virginia. The Virginia General Assembly has since broadened its regulatory authority.
The SCC’s powers, which range from issuing rules and regulations to setting rates charged by large investor-owned utilities, are delineated by the state constitution and state law. The SCC’s three commissioners are elected by the General Assembly for six-year terms. Working full-time, the commissioners direct the work of the SCC.
Scope of Work:
The SCC, through the Bureau of Insurance (Bureau), is vested with the responsibility for regulating insurance companies, agencies, and agents in Virginia. The Bureau licenses, investigates and examines insurance companies, agencies, and agents to ensure that citizens of the Commonwealth are provided with access to adequate and reliable insurance protection; that the insurance companies selling policies are financially sound to support payment of claims; that the agents selling company policies are qualified and conduct their business according to statutory and regulatory requirements, as well as acceptable standards of conduct; and that the insurance policies are of high quality, are understandable and are fairly priced.
One essential component of insurance regulation is the appropriate oversight of the ways insurance companies distribute their products in the marketplace, namely, market conduct regulation (or market regulation). Market conduct—a term commonly used to describe problems associated with the distribution, sale and administration of insurance—has become a key insurance regulatory focus over the last decade. Insurance regulators view market conduct as critical to ensuring the welfare of consumers and maintaining public confidence in the insurance industry. Market regulation attempts to ensure consumers are charged fair and reasonable insurance prices. It also strives to ensure consumers have access to beneficial and compliant insurance products and are protected against insurers that fail to operate in ways that are legal and fair to consumers.
In order for the SCC to conduct market regulation, company examinations are performed. The examinations and data gathering environment today is performed by two different sections: the Bureau’s Property and Casualty (P&C) section and the Life and Health (L&H) section. P&C utilizes a custom- built Microsoft (MS) Access 2002 application, while L&H uses Excel spreadsheets and WORD documents. Examinations utilize stored templates specific to policies, statutes, and regulations. These templates allow all company violations identified within the exam process to be tracked and updated.
In addition, these templates allow the generation of formal reports to external users.
The SCC is seeking information on the availability and implementation process for a single solution to support both P&C and L&H. The ideal solution(s) would support a workflow and repository to aid with audits, as well as, the capability for both internal and external users to collaborate. In addition, the solution must support the ability to securely house personal identifiable information. The Bureau estimates approximately 25+ internal users in addition to an unknown number of external users.
The SCC is specifically interested in obtaining information on the option of a centralized web-based solution(s) that allow the SCC to obtain the necessary market information in support of its regulatory requirements for performing market conduct examinations. However, the SCC is open to other options that may more fully or efficiently meet the business needs.
Due Date:
July 9, 2020 at 2:00PM EST
Address:
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION
1300 East Main Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
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