Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Employee First in the Country to Achieve Designation

Jul 8, 2009

Above: the OIR’s Steven Szypula is the first regulator in the United States to be designated Senior Professional in Insurance Regulation.

Minneapolis – Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty on June 13, 2009, announced that an employee of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (Office) earned the distinction of being the first regulator in the country to attain the Senior Professional in Insurance Regulation (SPIR) designation.

Commissioner McCarty presented the designation to Steven Szypula, the Office’s chief analyst of property and casualty oversight, at the Summer Meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

“Florida is proud that one of our own has the honor of being the first regulator in the country to have earned the SPIR designation,” McCarty said.

The SPIR designation is one of three levels of designations available from the NAIC’s Professional Designation Program. The program is designed to provide state insurance regulators at all staff levels an opportunity for professional growth through completion of specific educational requirements which demonstrate expertise in different aspects of insurance regulation.

About the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (Office) has primary responsibility for regulation, compliance and enforcement of statutes related to the business of insurance and the monitoring of industry markets. Business units within the Office are organized based on regulatory expertise and include the areas of life and health, property and casualty, specialty lines and other regulated insurance entities. It is within the Office that the mission of public protection is implemented through regulatory oversight of insurance company solvency, policy forms and rates, market conduct performance and new company entrants to the Florida market.

For more information about the Office, please visit www.floir.com.