Sec. 15. 9-B MRSA §448, sub-§5, as amended by PL 1999, c. 127, Pt. A, §23 and c. 218, §23, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

5.__Rulemaking.__The superintendent, Superintendent of Insurance and the Director of the Office of Consumer Credit Regulation are authorized, pursuant to this subsection, Title 9- A, section 4-407 and Title 24-A, section 1443-A, subsection 3 to undertake joint rulemaking to carry out the purpose of subsection 4, including issues regarding signs, the physical location of sales of insurance and identification of producers affiliated with financial institutions, credit unions, financial institution holding companies or supervised lenders.__In adopting rules pursuant to this section, the superintendent, the Superintendent of Insurance and the Director of the Office of Consumer Credit Regulation shall consider the possibility of confusion and perception of coercion among the insurance consuming public, the need for cost-effective delivery of insurance products to insurance consumers and the importance of parity among producers affiliated with federally chartered and state-chartered financial institutions and credit unions.__Any rule adopted may not interfere significantly with the ability of a producer to solicit or negotiate the sale of an insurance product, whether or not that producer is affiliated with a financial institution, credit union, financial institution holding company or supervised lender, except when no other reasonable alternative exists to protect the insurance consuming public.__Rules adopted under this section are routine technical rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter II-A.__Nothing in this section is intended to restrict or interfere with the ability of the bureau, the Bureau of Insurance or the Office of Consumer Credit Regulation to adopt rules with respect to areas in which the respective agencies have independent jurisdiction.

Sec. 16. 12 MRSA §6193, as enacted by PL 1977, c. 661, §5, is amended to read: