§33-27-2. Definitions.

As used in this article:

(a) An "affiliate" of or person "affiliated" with a specific person is a person that, directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls or is controlled by or is under common control with the person specified.

(b) "Commissioner" means the West Virginia Insurance Commissioner, his or her deputies or the West Virginia offices of the Insurance Commissioner, as appropriate.

(c) "Control" (including the terms "controlling", "controlled by" and "under common control with") means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract other than a commercial contract for goods or nonmanagement services or otherwise, unless the power is the result of an official position with or corporate office held by the person. Control shall be presumed to exist if any person, directly or indirectly, owns, controls, holds with the power to vote or holds proxies representing ten percent or more of the voting securities of any other person. This presumption may be rebutted by a showing made in the manner provided by subsection (k), section four of this article that control does not exist in fact. The commissioner may determine after furnishing all persons in interest notice and opportunity to be heard and making specific findings of fact to support the determination that control exists in fact notwithstanding the absence of a presumption to that effect.

(d) "Enterprise risk" means any activity, circumstance, event or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer that, if not remedied promptly, is likely to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole, including, but not limited to, anything that would cause the insurer’s risk-based capital to fall into company action level, as set forth in article forty of this chapter, or would cause the insurer to be in hazardous financial condition, as set forth in article thirty-four of this chapter.

(e) "Group-wide supervisor" means the regulatory official authorized to engage in conducting and coordinating group-wide supervision activities who is determined or acknowledged by the commissioner under §33-27-6b of this code to have sufficient significant contacts with the internationally active insurance group.

(f) "Insurance holding company system" consists of two or more affiliated persons, one or more of which is an insurer.

(g) "Insurer" means any person or persons or corporation, partnership or company authorized by the laws of this state to transact the business of insurance in this state, except that it shall not include agencies, authorities or instrumentalities of the United States, its possessions and territories, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia or a state or political subdivision of a state.

(h) "Internationally active insurance group" means an insurance holding company system that includes an insurer registered under §33-27-4 of this code and meets the following criteria:

(1) Premiums written in at least three countries;

(2) The percentage of gross premiums written outside the United States is at least 10 percent of the insurance holding company system’s total gross written premiums; and

(3) Based on a three-year rolling average, the total assets of the insurance holding company system are at least $50 billion or the total gross written premiums of the insurance holding company system are at least $10 billion.

(i) "Person" means an individual, a corporation, a limited liability company, a partnership, an association, a joint-stock company, a trust, an unincorporated organization, a depository institution or any similar entity or any combination of the foregoing acting in concert, but does not include any joint venture partnership exclusively engaged in owning, managing, leasing or developing real or tangible personal property.

(j) A "security holder" of a specified person is one who owns any security of such person, including common stock, preferred stock, debt obligations and any other security convertible into or evidencing the right to acquire any of the foregoing.

(k) A "subsidiary" of a specified person is an affiliate controlled by such person directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.

(l) "Voting security" includes any security convertible into or evidencing a right to acquire a voting security.