Big I NY Stands Up For Members With NYS DFS On DFS ID Problems
After several days of messages, phone conversations, and meetings between Big I New York and the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), the department has informed us that it is working on repairs to its new DFS ID website platform. DFS also announced today that licensed excess line brokers will have an extra thirty days to submit their premium tax statements.
Many Big I NY members have contacted us since DFS announced the DFS ID system on February 20. They reported confusion amongst their staff regarding who it was for, how to use it, how to create an account, and other problems. Some licensed individuals never received email from DFS inviting them to click a link and set up their accounts. It was also unclear who within an agency had the ability to conduct transactions on its behalf. Multiple people reported not seeing their agencies’ names after clicking the “My Entities” button on the DFS ID home screen.
Big I NY leadership has been in regular contact with DFS officials since the rollout, informing them of the problems members were experiencing. Phone calls and messages have been exchanged daily for the last week. Bigi NY leadership and staff participated in a meeting yesterday afternoon with a team from DFS that included insurance regulators, information technology staff, and communications personnel. DFS acknowledged the issues and committed to resolve them as quickly as possible.
The DFS team said that they planned to work through the weekend and hoped to have at least some fixes in place by early next week. Big I NY and DFS plan to meet again mid-week to assess progress.
In addition, the email announcement DFS sent to all licensees today stated that, because of the issues with DFS ID, excess line brokers will have an additional thirty days to submit the annual premium tax statements without incurring penalties. State law requires excess line brokers to submit the statements each year by March 15, only two days from now. The extension will permit them to submit the statements as late as April 14. Penalties for late submissions are waived for submissions received by that date.
The DFS ID system is intended to give users of the DFS website a single sign-on so that they may access applications and perform transactions such as license renewals, address changes, cybersecurity regulation compliance filings, and others. It is expected that the system will eventually make the site more user-friendly, once these initial issues are resolved.
We encourage members to continue to inform us of problems they may be having with the DFS ID. Contact Tim Dodge at tdodge@biginy.org or at 800.962.7950 EXT. 229.
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