ALBANY – The state’s top auto insurers have been summoned to meet with the head of the state Insurance Department to discuss lowering their rates.
Insurance Superintendent Gregory Serio took the unusual step of sending a letter to the top 13 auto insurers in New York, including Allstate, GEICO, Progressive and State Farm, requesting individual meetings within the next 30 days.
Serio said the time was right to push the issue given a declining industry loss ratio, a drop in auto-insurance fraud, and regulatory changes made in recent years by the state.
“Continued improvement in loss experience and related costs appear to indicate that downward rate adjustments might now be appropriate,” Serio wrote in the letter to the companies.
New York has the second highest auto rates in the country, behind only New Jersey.
Since 2002, the auto market has improved for insurers. In that year, auto insurance companies set aside 86 cents out of every $1 collected in premiums to pay claims, Serio said.
But as of June 30 of this year, that number dropped dramatically to 61 cents out of every $1.
Serio credits the reduction to anti-fraud measures enacted by the state, including the creation of anti-fraud task force involving the Insurance Department and the attorney general’s office.