New York (State). Insurance Dept.

Until 1849, insurance companies doing business in New York were chartered by special acts of the Legislature. A law passed that year (Chapter 308) required prospective insurance companies to file incorporation papers with the secretary of state. The law also vested regulatory power over insurance companies with the comptroller, who was authorized to require the companies to submit annual financial statements and to deny a company the right to operate if capital securities and investments did not remain secure.

The Insurance Department was created in 1859 (Chapter 366) and assumed the functions of the comptroller and secretary of state relating to insurance. The department was headed by a superintendent appointed by the governor. The agency was continued unchanged after the 1925 constitutional reorganization of State government (Laws of 1926, Chapter 353).

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