Enrolled Committee Substitute
House Bill 2764 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2764
(By Delegates Kominar, Barker, Moore, Perry,
Ashley, Walters, Schoen and Hartman)
[Passed March 10, 2007; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT
to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §33-12-37, relating
to criminal history checks for applicants for insurance
producer licenses; defining terms; authorizing Insurance
Commissioner to establish and collect fees; requiring
applicants to submit fingerprints; requiring the Insurance
Commission to transmit fingerprints to the State Police and
Federal Bureau of Investigation; requiring certain records be
confidential; exempting certain information from disclosure
pursuant to subpoena or discovery; and authorizing Insurance
Commissioner to promulgate emergency rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-12-37, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 12. INSURANCE PRODUCERS AND SOLICITORS.
§33-12-37. Authorization for criminal history record check; fees;
rules.
(a) In furtherance of the national goal of promoting
uniformity and reciprocity among the states with regard to producer
licensing, this section sets forth the requirements to obtain
access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Criminal Justice
Information Services Division criminal history record information
and to secure information or reports from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation Criminal Justice Information Services Division. The
scope of this section is to set forth the applicability of the
criminal history record check to applicants for a home state
insurance producer license.
(b) As used in this section, the following terms have the
meanings ascribed in this subsection, unless a different meaning is
clearly required by the context:
(1)"Applicant" means a natural person applying for:
(A) An initial home state license as an insurance producer;
(B) An additional line of authority under an existing home
state insurance producer license where a criminal history record
check has not been obtained; or
(C) A resident insurance producer license under change of home
state provisions.
"Applicant" does not mean a person applying for renewal or
continuation of a home state insurance producer license or a nonresident insurance producer license.
(2) "Fingerprint" means an impression of the lines on the
finger taken for the purpose of identification. The impression may
be obtained electronically or in ink converted to an electronic
format.
(c) In order to make a determination of license eligibility,
the commissioner is authorized to require fingerprints of
applicants and to submit the fingerprints and the fee required to
perform the criminal history record checks to the West Virginia
State Police and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the
state and national criminal history record checks.
(d) The commissioner shall require a criminal history record
check on each applicant in accordance with this section. The
commissioner shall require each applicant to submit a full set of
fingerprints, including a scanned file from a hard copy
fingerprint, in order for the commissioner to obtain and receive
national criminal history records from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
(e) The commissioner shall collect a fee from each applicant
in an amount established by rule. The amount of the fee must be
sufficient to cover:
(1) The cost of the collection and transmittal of fingerprints
by persons, including local law enforcement agencies that are
approved by the commissioner to capture fingerprints, to the West
Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and
(2) The cost of any amounts charged by the State Police and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation to perform the criminal history
record checks.
(f) The commissioner may contract for the collection and
transmission of fingerprints authorized under this section and may
order that the fee for collecting and transmitting fingerprints be
payable directly by the applicant to the contractor.
(g) The commissioner is authorized to receive criminal history
record information directly from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, in lieu of via transmission of the information from
the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the West Virginia State
Police.
(h) The commissioner shall treat and maintain an applicant's
fingerprints and any criminal history record information obtained
under this section as confidential and shall apply security
measures consistent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Criminal Justice Information Services Division standards for the
electronic storage of fingerprints and necessary identifying
information. The commissioner shall limit the use of records
solely to the purposes authorized in this section. The
fingerprints and the criminal history record information in the
custody of the commissioner are not subject to subpoena, other than
one issued in a criminal action or investigation; are confidential
by law and privileged; and are not subject to discovery or
admissible in evidence in any private civil action.
(i) The commissioner shall promulgate emergency rules pursuant
to the provisions of section fifteen, article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code as are necessary for the administration
of this section, including rules governing the issuance of
provisional producer licences pending receipt of the criminal
background check.
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