Filing procedures

1. An insurer, or the insurance group of which the insurer is a member, required to file a corporate governance annual disclosure pursuant to North Dakota Century Code chapter 26.1-10.3, no later than June first of each calendar year, shall submit to the commissioner a corporate governance annual disclosure that contains the information described in section 45-03-25-05. 2. The corporate governance annual disclosure must include a signature of the insurer's or insurance group's chief executive officer or corporate secretary attesting to the best of that individual's belief and knowledge that the insurer or insurance group has implemented the corporate governance practices and that a copy of the corporate governance annual disclosure has been provided to the board or the appropriate committee thereof. 3. The insurer or insurance group has discretion regarding the appropriate format for providing the information required by these regulations and may customize the corporate governance annual disclosure to provide the most relevant information necessary to permit the commissioner to gain an understanding of the corporate governance structure, policies, and practices utilized by the insurer or insurance group. 4. For purposes of completing the corporate governance annual disclosure, the insurer or insurance group may choose to provide information on governance activities that occur at the ultimate controlling parent level, an intermediate holding company level or the individual legal entity level, or both, depending upon how the insurer or insurance group has structured its system of corporate governance. The insurer or insurance group is encouraged to make the corporate governance annual disclosures at the level at which the insurer's or insurance group's risk appetite is determined, or at which the earnings, capital, liquidity, operations, and reputation of the insurer are overseen collectively and at which the supervision of those factors are coordinated and exercised, or the level at which legal liability for failure of general corporate governance duties would be placed. If the insurer or insurance group determines the level of reporting based on these criteria, it shall indicate which of the three criteria was used to determine the level of reporting and explain any subsequent changes in the level of reporting. 5. Notwithstanding subsection 1, and as outlined in North Dakota Century Code section 26.1-10.3-02, if the corporate governance annual disclosure is completed at the insurance group level, it must be filed with the lead state of the group as determined by the procedures outlined in the most recent Financial Analysis Handbook adopted by the national association of insurance commissioners. In these instances, a copy of the corporate governance annual disclosure also must be provided to the chief regulatory official of any state in which the insurance group has a domestic insurer, upon request. 6. An insurer or insurance group may comply with this section by referencing other existing documents (e.g., own risk and solvency assessment summary report, holding company form B or F filings, securities and exchange commission proxy statements, or foreign regulatory reporting requirements) if the documents provide information comparable to the information described in subsection 5. The insurer or insurance group clearly shall reference the location of the relevant information within the corporate governance annual disclosure and attach the referenced document if it is not already filed or available to the regulator. 7. Each year following the initial filing of the corporate governance annual disclosure, the insurer or insurance group shall file an amended version of the previously filed corporate governance annual disclosure indicating where changes have been made. If no changes were made in the information or activities reported by the insurer or insurance group, the filing should so state.