Market Conduct Annual Statement

Last Updated: 3/21/2024

Issue: Market regulation is constantly evolving to respond to changes in the insurance marketplace and technology. The Market Conduct Annual Statement (MCAS) was developed in the 2002 to provide regulators with a uniform system of collecting market-related information to help states monitor the market conduct of companies. Currently, the MCAS is used to collect claims and underwriting data on the Private Passenger Auto, Homeowners, Life, Annuity, Long-Term Care, Health, Disability and Lender-Placed (Auto and Homeowners) lines of business (LOBs) and each year, the Market Analysis Procedures (D) Working Group considers new LOBs to be added to MCAS. This allows regulators to identify concerns regarding claims and underwriting.

Background: The collection of MCAS data began in 2002 with the goal of collecting uniform market conduct related data. MCAS ratios were developed to provide more meaningful comparisons between companies than the raw data allowed. To prevent different data definitions from one state to the next, participating states agreed upon and published a set of common definitions organized by line of business.

In 2008, the NAIC unveiled its long-range plans for the centralization of MCAS data, which included the participation of all states and the District of Columbia. In 2009, the NAIC Executive Committee approved the creation of a new MCAS collection tool to be used by insurance companies to report their data. The data is sent to the NAIC for centralized storage and analysis. The MCAS is a collaboration of regulators, the insurance industry and consumers who recognize the benefits of monitoring, benchmarking, analyzing and regulating the market conduct of insurance companies. Since 2002, the MCAS has grown from eight states collecting only life and annuity information to nearly all states collecting data on nine separate lines of business. New lines of business are added regularly.

On April 15, 2011, the NAIC launched the newly redesigned collection system that simplified the MCAS process. The centralized collection of data improves state regulation by allowing all participating state regulators and NAIC staff to analyze the industry on both a national and a state level. The MCAS gives insurance regulators another tool to protect insurance policyholders and claimants.

Through the cooperation of insurance regulators and the insurance industry, the MCAS will continue to grow and promises to be the primary source of market conduct data for use in market analysis. The NAIC Market Analysis Procedures (D) Working Group is responsible for selecting new MCAS lines of business, and promoting uniform analysis by applying consistent measurements and comparisons of MCAS data provided by companies. The data elements and data definitions for the MCAS are overseen by the Market Conduct Annual Statement Blanks (D) Working Group.

The MCAS continues to grow in the number of states collecting MCAS as well as in the number of lines of business reported through MCAS. Forty-nine jurisdictions are participating in MCAS as of the 2021 data year. Puerto Rico is joining as a participating MCAS jurisdiction for the 2022 data year. Below is a company and filing count by LOB for the 2021 data year:

Based on 2021 filing data as of January 2023.

Short-Term Limited Duration Health and Travel insurance lines of business will be added to the MCAS and collected for the first time beginning with the 2022 data year.