SPIRO T. AGNEW, Governor                        905

other liabilities in an amount at least equal to that required under
either (1) Sections 48 and 49 if the insurer is to be authorized to do
business on a non-assessable basis, or (2) Section 253 if the insurer
is to be authorized to do business on an assessable basis.

(b)    No insurer commencing business in this State on or after
July 1, 1968, shall issue policies of vehicle liability insurance on an
assessable basis. Insurers writing assessable vehicle liability policies
on July 1, 1968, shall cease issuing such policies after December
31, 1969.

(c)    Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, any
domestic mutual insurer writing assessable policies which is licensed
only for property insurance and casualty insurance other than motor
vehicle physical damage insurance, motor vehicle liability insurance,
or workmen's compensation, shall not be required to have any greater
amount of assets or surplus than it would be required to have if it
wrote only one kind of insurance, if such insurer (1) restricts its
operations to the county where its principal office is located and to
the counties in this State which are immediately adjacent thereto,
and is not licensed in any other State, (2) has been in existence for
at least twenty years prior to July 1, 1968, and (3) maintains an
automatic reinsurance treaty filed with and approved by the Commis-
sioner reinsuring liability coverages issued by it in excess of a net
amount of retention satisfactory to the Commissioner.

253.

(e)    Such an insurer shall have collected an annual cash pre-
mium, or a full premium for the term for which the policy is written,
if for less than a year upon each application required for organiza-
tion, the total of which premiums shall be held in cash or in invest-
ments authorized for capital and reserve under subtitle 7, and the
total assets, excluding any borrowed money or other borrowed assets,
other than borrowed surplus under Section 266 shall, for each kind
[all the kinds] of insurance business specified in Section 48 of sub-
title 3 of this article, (except as prohibited under Sections 252 and
369) be not less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
($250,000) and shall exceed the amount required for reserves and
all other liabilities by not less than one hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars ($125,000).

(f)    To qualify for authority to engage in two or more of the
kinds of insurance business permitted to be written on an assessable
basis under this Article, the assets of a mutual insurer writing
assessable policies shall be not less than five hundred thousand
($500,000) and shall exceed the amount required for reserves and all
other liabilities by not less than two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars ($250,000).

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this Act shall
be construed or applied to affect in any manner the provisions of
Section 5 of Chapter 553 of the Acts of 1963.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1968.

Approved May 7, 1968.