FTC orders top insurers to release data

The nine top providers of home-owner insurance have been ordered to provide the agency with information about policy holders, premiums, claims data, use of credit history etc.  The companies are: State Farm, Allstate, Fire Insurance Exchange, Nationwide, The Travelers, United Services Automobile Association, Liberty Mutual, The Chubb Corporation and American Family Mutual.   The FTC says that these nine carriers comprise sixty percent of the homeowners insurance market.  The companies have until April 24th 2009 to provide this information to the FTC

This request intrigues me because I don’t think insurance carriers have been required by the FTC to provide this kind of information before.   Also, the data itself will be a fascinating glimpse at a mostly hidden market; what it charges, terms and conditions of insurance, the relationship between credit-based insurance scores and the insurance provided.  Finally, this information about the top nine homeowner insurance carriers isn’t that easy to come by and here it is presented in a government news release.  I am surprised that Hartford Financial, Century 21 and CNA aren’t in this top group.

New release

Tags: Allstate, American Family Mutual, Federal Trade Commission, Fire Insurance Exchange, homeowners insurance, insurance industry, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, State Farm, The Chubb Corporation, The Travelers