PIANY Succeeds In Winning Right For Producers To Access CLUE Data Base.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The Professional Insurance Agents of New York State (PIANY) said September 22 that it had won a "hard-fought, year-long battle" for access by brokers and agents to the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE) data base. The data base is maintained by Equifax Services Inc.

Henry J. Kaye, PIANY president, said that the victory not only benefits New York agents, "but most likely will provide CLUE access to agents nationwide."

PIANY initiated the campaign last summer to gain access to CLUE data after its members expressed frustration over their inability to get the information available to insurers. Kaye said that it at first seemed that Equifax and its company members would not permit such access, but he said that PIANJ argued that access would benefit both the companies and the agents in time and cost. The PIANY position was that agents would access CLUE records before writing a policy rather than writing a policy only to have it rejected by a company because of pertinent CLUE information. Protests about the inability to access this data have been mounted by producers in many states.

The way the system operates, producers must be...