In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) An "affiliate" of, or person "affiliated" with, a specific person means a person who directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with the person specified.

(2) The term "control" (including the terms "controlling", "controlled by", and "under common control with") means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract other than a commercial contract for goods or nonmanagement services, or otherwise, unless the power is the result of an official position with or corporate office held by the person. Control is presumed to exist if any person, directly, or indirectly, owns, controls, holds with the power to vote, or holds proxies representing ten percent or more of the voting securities of any other person. This presumption may be rebutted by a showing made in the manner provided by Section 38-21-220 that control does not exist in fact. The director or his designee may determine, after furnishing all persons in interest notice and opportunity to be heard and making specific findings of fact to support his determination, that control exists in fact, notwithstanding the absence of a presumption to that effect.

(3) The term "director" means the Director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance or his designee.

(4) The term "group-wide supervisor" means the regulatory official authorized to engage in conducting or coordinating group-wide supervision activities who is determined or acknowledged by the director pursuant to Section 38-21-295 to have sufficient significant contacts with the internationally active insurance group.

(5) An "insurance holding company system" consists of two or more affiliated persons, one or more of which is an insurer.

(6) The term "insurer" has the same meaning as set forth in Section 38-1-20 except that it does not include (a) agencies, authorities, or instrumentalities of the United States, its possessions and territories, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, or a state or political subdivision of a state or (b) nonprofit medical and hospital service associations.

(7) The term "internationally active insurance group" means an insurance holding company system that includes an insurer registered pursuant to Sections 38-21-143 through 38-21-240 and meets the following criteria:

(a) premiums written in at least three countries;

(b) the percentage of gross premiums written outside the United States is at least ten percent of the insurance holding company system's total gross written premiums; and

(c) based on a three-year rolling average, the total assets of the insurance holding company system are at least fifty billion dollars or the total gross written premiums of the insurance holding company systems are at least ten billion dollars.

(8) A "person" means an individual, a corporation, a partnership, an association, a joint stock company, a trust, an unincorporated organization, any similar entity, or any combination of the foregoing acting in concert.

(9) A "securityholder" of a specified person is one who owns any security of that person, including common stock, preferred stock, debt obligations, and any other security convertible into or evidencing the right to acquire any of the foregoing.

(10) A "subsidiary" of a specified person is an affiliate controlled by that person directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.

(11) The term "voting security" includes any security convertible into or evidencing a right to acquire a voting security.

(12) "Enterprise risk" means an activity, circumstance, event, or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer that, if not remedied promptly, likely is to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole, including, but not limited to, anything that would cause the insurer's risk-based capital to fall into company action level as provided in Section 38-9-330 or would cause the insurer to be in hazardous financial condition as provided in Section 38-5-120.

(13) A "supervisory college" is a meeting or joint meeting of insurance regulators or supervisors with company officials where the topic of discussion is regulatory oversight of one specific insurance group that is writing significant amounts of insurance in other jurisdictions. It may involve detailed discussions about financial data, corporate governance, and enterprise risk management functions. Supervisory colleges are intended to facilitate the oversight of internationally active insurance companies at the group level.

HISTORY: Former 1976 Code Section 38-21-10 [1947 (45) 322; 1952 Code Section 37-851; 1962 Code Section 37-851] recodified as Section 38-37-10 by 1987 Act No. 155, Section 1; Former 1976 Code Section 38-29-10 [1962 Code Section 37-1400; 1971 (57) 351; 1986 Act No. 426, Section 1] recodified as Section 38-21-10 by 1987 Act No. 155, Section 1; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 561; 2000 Act No. 259, Section 3; 2001 Act No. 82, Section 8, eff July 20, 2001; 2015 Act No. 2 (S.342), Section 3, eff March 9, 2015; 2017 Act No. 48 (S.254), Section 2, eff January 1, 2018; 2019 Act No. 3 (S.75), Section 3, eff March 20, 2019.

Effect of Amendment

2015 Act No. 2, Section 3, added (9).

2017 Act No. 48, Section 2, added (10), relating to the definition of "supervisory college".

2019 Act No. 3, Section 3, inserted (3) and (4), relating to the definitions of "director" and "group-wide supervisor"; renumbered (3) to (4) as (5) to (6); inserted (7), relating to the definition of "internationally active insurance group"; renumbered (5) to (10) as (8) to (13); and made nonsubstantive changes.