Kreidler: Industry favors profits over people in challenge to credit score rule

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April 13, 2021

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance companies hiding behind their industry associations contend no financial emergency exists during the current pandemic and that lower-income consumers in Washington deserve no protection from the discriminatory use of credit scores. 

In a lawsuit filed last week, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association challenged Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s emergency rule to prohibit the use of credit scores to set rates for auto, homeowner and renters insurance. The lobbying association bills itself as representing the nation’s biggest and most profitable insurance companies in the United States. 

Kreidler filed his response today to the association’s lawsuit that challenges his authority to protect insurance consumers from discrimination in anticipation of the end of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Kreidler issued an emergency rule March 23 prohibiting insurers from using credit scoring to set rates for personal property for three years. 

A hearing on the lawsuit is set for 9 a.m. April 16 in Thurston County Superior Court.