(a) For the purposes of this article only, every foreign insurer, except an insurer described in Article 2 (commencing with Section 12350) of Chapter 1 of Part 6 of Division 2, that is authorized to do business in this state and that, during its three preceding fiscal years taken together, or during any lesser period of time if it has been licensed to transact its business in California only for such lesser period of time, has written an average of more direct premiums in the State of California than it has written in its state of domicile during the same period, and those direct premiums written constitute 33 percent or more of its total direct premiums written everywhere in the United States for that three-year or lesser period, as reported in its three most recent annual statements, shall be deemed a “commercially domiciled insurer” within the State of California.

(b) The commissioner may exempt from the provisions of this article any commercially domiciled insurer made subject to this article by subdivision (a) if he or she determines that it has a sufficiently large amount of assets and the evidences of title thereto physically located in California, or that the ratio of those assets to its California policyholder liability is sufficiently large, as to justify the conclusion that there is no reasonable danger that the operations or conduct of the business of the insurer could present a danger of loss to California policyholders. The commissioner may also exempt from the provisions of this article any commercially domiciled insurer made subject to this article by subdivision (a) under the circumstances that he or she deems appropriate.

(c) This section does not exempt any foreign insurer that is authorized to do business in this state, including a commercially domiciled insurer, from the provisions of any other sections of this article that may be applicable to the insurer.

(Added by renumbering Section 1215.13 by Stats. 2012, Ch. 282, Sec. 14. (SB 1448) Effective January 1, 2013.)