1.    All risk-based capital reports, to the extent the information therein is not required to be set forth in a publicly available annual statement schedule, and risk-based capital plans, including the results or report of any examination or analysis of an insurer performed under this chapter and any corrective order issued by the commissioner pursuant to examination or analysis, with respect to any domestic insurer or foreign insurer that are in the possession or control of the insurance department are confidential and privileged, not subject to section 44-04-18, not subject to subpoena, and not subject to discovery and are not admissible in evidence in any private civil action. However, the commissioner may use any document, material, or other information in the furtherance of any regulatory or legal action brought as a part of the commissioner’s official duties.

2.    Neither the commissioner nor any person that received any document, material, or other information while acting under the authority of the commissioner may be permitted or required to testify in any private civil action concerning any confidential document, material, or information subject to subsection 1.

3.    To assist in the performance of the commissioner’s duties, the commissioner:

a.    May share any document, material, or other information, including any confidential and privileged document, material, or information subject to subsection 1, with any other state, federal, or international regulatory agency; the national association of insurance commissioners and its affiliates and subsidiaries; and any state, federal, and international law enforcement authority, provided the recipient agrees to maintain the confidentiality and privileged status of the document, material, or other information.

b.    May receive any document, material, or information, including any otherwise confidential and privileged document, material, or information, from the national association of insurance commissioners and its affiliates and subsidiaries and from any regulatory and law enforcement official of any other foreign or domestic jurisdiction, and shall maintain as confidential or privileged any document, material, or information received with notice or the understanding that it is confidential or privileged under the laws of the jurisdiction that is the source of the document, material, or information.

c.    May enter any agreement governing sharing and use of information consistent with this subsection.

4.    Waiver of any applicable privilege or claim of confidentiality in any document, material, or information does not occur as a result of disclosure to the commissioner under this section or as a result of sharing as authorized in subsection 3.

5.    It is the judgment of the legislative assembly that the comparison of an insurer’s total adjusted capital to any of its risk-based capital levels is a regulatory tool that may indicate the need for possible corrective action with respect to the insurer, and is not intended as a means to rank insurers generally. Therefore, except as otherwise required under this chapter, the making, publishing, disseminating, circulating, or placing before the public, or causing, directly or indirectly, to be made, published,    disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication, or in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter, or poster, or over any radio or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement, or statement containing an assertion, representation, or statement with regard to the risk-based capital levels of any insurer, or of any component derived in the calculation, by any insurer, insurance producer, broker, or other person engaged in any manner in the insurance business would be misleading and is therefore prohibited. However, if any materially false statement with respect to the comparison regarding an insurer’s total adjusted capital to its risk-based capital levels, or any of them, or an inappropriate comparison of any other amount to the insurer’s risk-based capital levels is published in any written publication and the insurer is able to demonstrate to the commissioner with substantial proof the falsity of the statement, or the inappropriateness, as the case may be, then the insurer may publish an announcement in a written publication if the sole purpose of the announcement is to rebut the materially false statement.

6. It is the further judgment of the legislative assembly that the risk-based capital instructions, risk-based capital reports, adjusted risk-based capital reports, risk-based capital plans, and revised risk-based capital plans are intended solely for use by the commissioner in monitoring the solvency of insurers and the need for possible corrective action with respect to insurers and may not be used by the commissioner for ratemaking nor considered or introduced as evidence in any rate proceeding nor used by the commissioner to calculate or derive any elements of an appropriate premium level or rate of return for any line of insurance that an insurer or any affiliate is authorized to write.