(a) An insurer that uses credit information to underwrite or rate risks for personal lines insurance shall not:

1. (1) use an insurance score that is calculated using income, gender, address, ZIP code, ethnic group, religion, marital status, or nationality of the consumer as a factor;
2. (2) deny a policy of personal lines insurance solely on the basis of credit information, without consideration of any other applicable underwriting factor(s) independent of credit information;
3. (3) use credit information to cancel a policy or as a basis for taking an adverse action against a current insured. However, an insurer may place the insured in a higher rated tier or reclassify that insured due to factors other than credit information in accordance with section 2349 or 2351 of the Insurance Law and its rates and rules filed with the superintendent;
4. (4) take an adverse action against a consumer solely because he or she does not have a credit card account;

5. (5) consider, for any given program of insurance, an absence of credit information or an inability to calculate an insurance score in underwriting or rating personal lines insurance, unless the insurer does one of the following:

   1. (i) treats the consumer as if the consumer had neutral credit information, as defined by the insurer;
   2. (ii) excludes the use of credit information as a factor and uses only other underwriting criteria; or
   3. (iii) makes a filing with the superintendent with respect to an individual consumer that shall be subject to approval by the superintendent. The insurer shall present satisfactory information applicable to the consumer that the absence of credit information or the inability to calculate an insurance score relates to the risk for the insurer; or

6. (6) use any of the following factors as a negative factor in any insurance scoring methodology or in reviewing credit information:

   1. (i) credit inquiries not initiated by the consumer or inquiries requested by the consumer for the consumer's own credit information;
   2. (ii) inquiries identified on the consumer's credit report as relating to insurance coverage;
   3. (iii) collection accounts that have been identified with a medical industry code on a consumer's credit report;
   4. (iv) multiple lender inquiries made within 30 days of one another and coded on the consumer's credit report as being from the home mortgage industry; however, an insurer may consider only one such inquiry; or
   5. (v) multiple lender inquiries made within 30 days of one another and coded on the consumer's credit report as being from the automobile lending industry; however, an insurer may consider only one such inquiry.

(b) An insurer may use credit information:

1. (1) in conjunction with any other applicable underwriting factors independent of credit information, upon application to deny the issuance of a new policy of personal lines insurance. The offer by an affiliate insurer to write the coverage or by the insurer to write the coverage through one of its tiers shall not constitute a denial of a policy but shall constitute an adverse action if the premium or policy conditions of the policy offered are less favorable to the insured due to the use of credit information; and
2. (2) upon renewal, if such use reduces the premium for the insured in accordance with the insurer's filed rates and rules.