- Division of Insurance
The Massachusetts Division of Insurance announced its membership to the United Nation’s Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF), an international group of regulators committed to finding climate change sustainability solutions.
“The climate crisis is a global problem that requires a global solution,” said Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Gary D. Anderson. “Membership in the SIF is another example of Massachusetts playing a leading role to address climate change through comprehensive, unified and transparent standards for insurance companies in terms of managing and disclosing climate risks.”
Massachusetts joins California, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Vermont, and Washington as SIF members along with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the US Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO), and many countries around the world to work on sustainability solutions on an international level.
“I am pleased to welcome the Massachusetts Division of Insurance as a member of the SIF. Noting the Division’s recent work on the climate reporting agenda in conjunction with the NAIC and Commissioner Anderson’s role with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, SIF looks forward to supporting Massachusetts’ leadership efforts in this area,” said Anna Sweeney, Executive Director at the Prudential Regulation Authority, Bank of England, Chair of the Sustainable Insurance Forum.
As insurance regulators in all 50 states work to address climate risk and resiliency, membership in the SIF adds to the Massachusetts Division of Insurance’s already ongoing work at the national level. Last month, at the NAIC spring national meeting, state insurance regulators adopted a new standard for insurance companies to report their climate-related risks, in alignment with the international Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The TCFD standard is the international benchmark for climate risk disclosure and will help insurance regulators and the public to better understand the climate-related risks to the U.S. insurance market, which is the largest in the world.
About the SIF:
The SIF is the global network of insurance supervisors and regulators working to address challenges to the sector brought about by the climate change crisis. SIF is the international platform to address sustainability issues impacting consumers, firms, and markets in their jurisdictions, and who have an interest in collaborating with their peers to share knowledge and identify best practices. The goal of the SIF is to achieve a global insurance system where sustainability factors are effectively integrated into the regulation and supervision of insurance companies.
The SIF is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).
The SIF is committed to sharing information and solutions that would help reduce and mitigate the impacts related to climate change. SIF is focusing on three main areas of work: climate-related risk on the insurability of assets, sustainability beyond climate change, and climate risks in actuarial processes.
About the Division of Insurance:
The Division of Insurance is an agency within the Office of Consumer and Business Regulation. The primary mission of the Division is to monitor the solvency of its licensees in order to promote a healthy, responsive and willing marketplace for consumers who purchase insurance products. The Division is responsible for regulating Massachusetts’ $60 billion insurance industry and overseeing more than 1,600 licensed insurance companies and approximately 141,000 individual insurance producers. Protection of consumer interests is of prime importance to the Division and is safeguarded by providing accurate and unbiased information so consumers may make informed decisions and by intervening on behalf of consumers who believe they have been victimized by unfair business practices.
