First introduced in 2001, the electronic filing program has been growing consistently, said Mike Pickens, Arkansas insurance commissioner and president of NAIC.

"The popularity and success of SERFF is gratifying and is a tangible indication of its value to both insurers and to state insurance regulators," Commissioner Pickens said.

He also noted that it is not only more cost effective than "antiquated" filing methods, but it also boosts accuracy and facilitates communications between states and insurers through status tracking, reports and workflow management.

William Maher, senior product development manager at NAIC, who participated in the SERFF board of directors meeting yesterday during the NAIC summer meeting here, said that in 2002 the SERFF usage had jumped more than 200 percent from the previous year.

This year, "more than 29,000 filings have been submitted through SERFF to the states. It already exceeded what we did all of last year," Mr. Maher told National Underwriter.

"We are seeing that states are accepting it more, and more companies are coming on," he said, also noting that New York is now making a strong recommendation that those on the property-casualty side utilize SERFF as their means for filing. "New York is one of the first states to issue such a recommendation," he said.

Currently, 49 states accept p-c insurance filings via SERFF, and among those states, 40 are accepting them for all filings types, such as rate, form, rule and advertising. Additionally, there are now more than 750 insurers licensed to use SERFF, including Prudential, Liberty Mutual and The Hartford, Mr. Maher said.

NAIC's goal, he noted, is to have all states accept all rate-and-form filings through SERFF for all lines of insurance and all filing types by the end of this year.

The NAIC recently had an e-regulation conference in Kansas City, where some of the SERFF users got to talk about their experiences, Mr. Maher said.

He related that a "representative from Liberty Mutual said that he was not a believer but that now he is because he had seen great cost-savings," Mr. Maher recalled. "I think companies are seeing that the old paper-way of doing it is outdated, it's outmoded. The cost is prohibitive and you've got to come to some means of electronic filing."