(a) (1) Commencing July 1, 2020, and biennially on July 1 of each even-numbered year thereafter, each admitted insurer with California premiums written of one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) or more, shall report to the commissioner on its governing board and board diversity efforts during the previous two years.

(2) The insurer shall provide the following information:

(A) The demographic makeup of the insurer’s governing board.

(B) The insurer’s goals regarding board diversity, including outreach and communication strategies to diversify its board.

(b) (1) An insurer shall provide each board member with an opportunity to participate in a survey for the purpose of collecting and reporting the information described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).

(2) The insurer shall distribute a written disclosure to each board member prior to, or concurrently with, the survey. The disclosure shall notify the board member that the board member’s decision to disclose their demographic information is voluntary, that no adverse action may be taken against the board member or the insurer if the board member declines to participate in the survey, and that the aggregate data collected for each demographic category will be reported.

(3) The survey shall be completed using a standardized form to be specified by the commissioner.

(4) Neither an insurer nor the department shall in any way encourage, incentivize, or attempt to influence the decision of a board member to participate in the survey.

(5) An insurer required to conduct the survey shall do both of the following:

(A) Collect survey response data from board members in a manner that maintains the anonymity of the responding board member and the confidentiality of the data reported.

(B) Transmit the survey response data to the department in a manner that does not associate the survey response data with an individual board member.

(c) This section does not require quotas, set-asides, or preferences in regard to an admitted insurer’s governing board.

(d) This section does not preclude an admitted insurer that is a member of an insurance holding company system, as defined in Article 4.7 (commencing with Section 1215) of Chapter 2, from complying with subdivisions (a) and (b) through a single filing by the insurance holding company on behalf of an entire group of affiliated companies that identifies the aggregated survey results for each affiliated insurer.

(e) By November 1 of the reporting year, the commissioner shall establish and maintain a link on the department’s internet website that provides public access to the information submitted pursuant to this section. The commissioner shall publish the information submitted pursuant to paragraph (5) of subdivision (b) in the aggregate, and shall not identify an individual respondent or insurer. The commissioner shall include a statement on the department’s internet website that the information posted pursuant to this subdivision is provided for informational purposes only.

(f) The data collected pursuant to this section is confidential and shall not be released by the department or an insurer under any circumstances, except as provided in this section.

(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 249, Sec. 1. (SB 534) Effective January 1, 2020.)