U.S. Department of the Treasury and State Insurance Regulators Launch Coordinated Effort on Homeowners Insurance Data Collection to Assess the Effects of Climate Risk on U.S. Insurance Markets

FIO expects to begin receiving data this summer

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) advanced its efforts to collect insurance data to better understand the impacts of climate-related financial risks on the insurance sector, by launching a first-of-its kind collaboration with state insurance regulators and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). This FIO and NAIC collaboration represents the next step of FIO’s efforts that were first publicly announced over one year ago.

The NAIC will be collecting, on behalf of participating state insurance regulators, ZIP Code-level data from the largest homeowners insurers. FIO will be closely coordinating with the NAIC as the NAIC shares granular information with FIO in the coming months. FIO will use this data to conduct a nationwide assessment of climate-related financial risks to consumers across the United States. 

“Americans across the country are seeing the affordability and availability of their insurance policies decline as a result of increasingly severe climate-related disasters,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “I’m pleased that the Federal Insurance Office, state insurance regulators, and the NAIC are collaborating on this important data collection. Analysis of homeowners insurance data is essential to understanding the market impacts on consumers and helping policymakers across the country respond appropriately to the risks.” 

FIO previously proposed to collect climate-related data directly from insurance companies, as approved by the Office of Management and Budget earlier this year. In light of the agreement by the NAIC and state insurance regulators to provide FIO with timely data comparable to its proposed collection, and to help mitigate reporting burdens on relevant insurance companies, FIO will pursue its efforts as part of the data collection collaboration with the NAIC rather than issue  its own separate data collection at this time.

The NAIC and FIO have agreed that the NAIC will begin sending the data to FIO in June 2024, shortly after the close of the NAIC data collection. The NAIC has agreed to provide FIO with final data in late September.

FIO’s analysis of the data received will help respond to President Biden’s Executive Order on Climate-related Financial Risk, EO 14030 (May 20, 2021), which called on FIO to “assess, in consultation with States, the potential for major disruptions of private insurance coverage in regions of the country particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts.” The data analysis will also advance FIO’s statutory mandates, including to monitor the extent to which traditionally underserved communities and consumers, minorities, and low- and moderate-income persons have access to affordable insurance products and to monitor all aspects of the insurance industry. FIO’s work to monitor the nationwide insurance industry complements the work of the states, which are the primary regulators of the insurance industry.

More information on the state insurance regulator data collection that will be shared with FIO is available here. Separately, more information on FIO’s analysis is available through a Federal Register notice issued in November 2023 requesting public comment on the proposed FIO data collection. For more information on FIO, see About FIO.

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