Citizens to Postpone Adding Renewal Policies to Clearinghouse
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has announced that it will not add renewal policies to its clearinghouse until closer to November 1 rather than August or September as previously planned. Currently, new business entering Citizens goes through the clearinghouse process, which allows participating insurers to identify policies meeting their desired underwriting criteria and make offers of coverage before the policies enter Citizens. If a participating insurer offers coverage within 15 percent of the Citizens rate, the policy is not eligible to be written by Citizens.
Citizens President and CEO Barry Gilway told its Board of Governors, “There were a few areas we felt needed to be improved but very clearly we’ll be ready by the end of the year.”
According to Citizens, the clearinghouse has resulted in about 3300 applicants being written in the voluntary market instead of entering the residual market. The clearinghouse became available for new business in January 2014. It started with four insurers quoting policies but has now grown to have 11 participating insurers. Barry Gilway indicated that about 20 insurers might participate when renewal policies are added to the system. The rules will be slightly different for renewal policies, with Citizens policyholders being rendered ineligible only if an authorized insurer offers coverage at or below the Citizens rate.