Jefferson City, Mo. - The Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration released its 2012 Annual Report today. The department's annual report, which is available online, is fully interactive, offering links, charts and other illustrations of data and trends in the regulation of insurance, banking and other industries.

"The department continued its commitment of protecting consumers in 2012, from ensuring banks, credit unions and insurance companies remained financially solvent, to disciplining doctors and other professionals who put Missourians at risk, to providing consumers with the tools to make smart choices" said John M. Huff, director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration. "Our 2012 Annual Report highlights the department's work in Joplin, consumer protection and recovery and regulatory efforts."

Among the department's accomplishments of 2012:

• Recovered $13 million for Missouri consumers through its consumer complaint mediation process
• Obtained enforcement penalties of $5.1 million against insurance companies
• Helped bring an insurance company back from the brink of insolvency after claims from the Joplin tornado put it in financial distress
• Launched a month-long consumer awareness campaign in Joplin about having adequate homeowners and renters insurance, based on lessons learned after the tornado
• Established new regulations for county mutual companies which require them to carry enough reinsurance that losses could not deplete their surplus by more than 20 percent in any one year for a single event

Other government efficiencies by DIFP under Huff's leadership include online tools for consumers filing complaints against banks, credit unions and insurance companies; online licensing for insurance agents; electronic filing of forms required from insurance companies; and a virtually paperless consumer complaint system in the insurance divisions.

The report is available on the department's website at difp.mo.gov.