Title 4 : NON-LIFE COMPANY UNDERWRITER

Sec. 318. No person shall act, and no company shall employ any person, as non-life company underwriter, whose duty and responsibility it shall be to select, evaluate and accept risks for, and to determine the terms and conditions, including those pertaining to amounts of retentions, under which such risks are to be accepted by the company, unless such underwriter is registered as such with the Commissioner.

Sec. 319. Every non-life insurance company doing business in the Philippines must maintain at all times a register of risks accepted and a claims register for each line of risks engaged in by such non-life insurance company with such entries therein as are now or as may hereafter be required by the Commissioner, and it shall be the responsibility of the underwriter on the particular line or risk involved to see to it that the said registers are well maintained and kept, and that all entries therein are properly and correctly recorded. Such registers shall be open to inspection and examination of duly authorized representative of the Commissioner at all times during business hours.

Sec. 320. No person shall be registered with the Commissioner, unless such person shall be at least twenty-one years of age on the date of such registration; a resident of the Philippines; of good moral character and with no conviction of any crime involving moral turpitude; has had at the time such registration is made at least two years of underwriting work in the particular line or risk involved; and has passed such qualifying written examination that the Commissioner shall conduct at such time and in such place as he may decide to hold for applicants desiring to act as underwriters.

Such examination shall not be required of any person who has served as non-life company underwriter for a period of at least five years, if the Commissioner is satisfied of the applicant's competence as shown by the results of his underwriting work in the non-life insurance company or companies that employed him in that capacity. The minimum underwriting experience herein required may be reduced or waived if it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that the non-life company underwriter has undergone extensive education and/or training in insurance.

Sec. 321. Any applicant who misrepresents or omits any material fact in his application for registration as a non-life company underwriter, or commits any dishonest act in taking or in connection with the qualifying written examination for underwriters, shall be barred from being registered as such non-life company underwriter and, if already registered, his registration shall be cancelled and the certificate of registration issued in his favor shall be recalled immediately by the Commissioner.

In the event that the certificate of authority of a non-life insurance company to transact business is suspended or revoked due to business failure arising largely from the imprudent and injudicious acceptance of risks by the underwriter concerned, the registration of such underwriter shall likewise be cancelled and his certificate of registration shall be recalled by the Commissioner, and no similar certificate shall thereafter be issued in his favor.

Sec. 322. No certificate of registration issued to an underwriter shall be valid after the thirtieth day of June of the year following its issuance unless it is renewed.

The Commissioner may, after due notice and hearing, also suspend or cancel such certificate for violation of existing laws, rules and regulations or of any provisions of this Code. (As amended by Presidential Decree No. 1455).