NY's Dinallo: 2-yr insurance refunds total $217 mln

NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - Over the past two years insurance companies refunded or credited to New Yorkers more than $217 million, Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo said on Tuesday.
Insurance companies separately paid around $18 million in fines over the same period, Dinallo said in an annual report to the legislature.
Dinallo said that the refunds ordered and fines charged were the result of consumer protection measures he instituted since his nomination as insurance superintendent in January of 2007.
The $217 million paid by insurance companies does not include New York State's largest-ever settlement, the $2 billion recovered for policyholders affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
The amount paid also does not include the $2 billion negotiated for Syncora Holdings Ltd, formerly Securities Capital Assurance, and XL Capital policy holders, Dinallo said.
Life insurers were ordered to refund or credit more than $60 million while health insurers were ordered to refund more than $58 million.
Dinallo said that fraud investigations returned as much as $36.5 million to policy holders while property and casualty insurers were fined around $1.3 million.

(Reporting by Tom Ryan; Editing by Padraic Cassidy) Keywords: INSURANCE REFUNDS/NY (thomas.j.ryan@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-6826; Reuters Messaging: thomas.j.ryan.reuters.com@reuters.net)