On July 31, 2013, Governor Cuomo signed into law New York Assembly Bill 7807A, which adopts key changes to the regulation of insurance holding company systems in New York under Article 15 of the New York Insurance Law and the regulation of New York domestic insurers under Articles 16 and 17 of the New York Insurance Law. The Bill was part of the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) 2013 legislative program and was branded the DFS’s “core mission” bill because it contained amendments necessary for New York to maintain its NAIC accreditation.

Key changes implemented by the Bill include:

- Amendments to Section 302 of the Insurance Law that give the Superintendent express authority to participate in supervisory colleges.

- Amendments to Sections 1503, 1604 and 1717 of the Insurance Law that require insurance holding companies, domestic property/casualty insurers and parent companies of domestic life insurers to adopt formal enterprise risk management (ERM) functions and file enterprise risk reports annually with the Superintendent by April 30.

- Amendments to Section 1505 of the Insurance Law to amend the reporting thresholds for sales, purchases, exchanges, loans, extensions of credit and investments between domestic insurers and affiliates in the same holding company system. Section 1505 is also amended to require 45-days’ notice before a domestic insurer may enter into a reinsurance agreement with an affiliate (rather than the 30-days’ notice required for other affiliate transactions).