1.    The commissioner or any of the commissioner’s examiners may conduct an examination under this chapter of any company whenever the commissioner in the commissioner’s sole discretion deems appropriate but shall at a minimum, conduct an examination of every insurer licensed in this state not less frequently than once every five years. In scheduling and determining the nature, scope, and frequency of the     examinations, the commissioner shall consider the matters as the results of financial statement analyses and ratios, changes in management or ownership, actuarial opinions, reports of independent certified public accountants, and other criteria as set forth in the examiners’ financial condition and market conduct handbook adopted by the national association of insurance commissioners and in effect when the commissioner exercises discretion under this section.

2.    For purposes of completing an examination of any company under this chapter, the commissioner may examine or investigate any person, or the business of any person, insofar as the examination or investigation is, in the sole discretion of the commissioner, necessary or material to the examination of the company.

3.    In lieu of an examination under this chapter of any foreign insurer licensed in this state, the commissioner may accept an examination report on the company as prepared by the insurance department for the company’s state of domicile or port-of-entry state until January 1, 1994. Thereafter, the reports may only be accepted if the insurance department was at the time of the examination accredited under the national association of insurance commissioners’ financial regulation standards and accreditation program, or the examination is performed under the supervision of an accredited insurance department or with the participation of one or more examiners who are employed by an accredited state insurance department and who, after a review of the examination workpapers and report, state under oath that the examination was performed in a manner consistent with the standards and procedures required by their insurance department, or the commissioner finds that the examination was performed by the insurance department of a state that was previously accredited under the national association of insurance commissioners but has lost its accreditation, provided that state’s consumer protection laws are no less protective than those present under North Dakota law.