RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents all of the auto insurance companies doing business in the state, filed a request Wednesday to increase private passenger auto rates by 6.7 percent.

The filing came the same day state Insurance Commissioner Jim Long announced a 2.5 percent overall decrease that would save motorists $404 million in potential premiums.

Long's announcement Wednesday came after reaching a settlement with the NCRB over a proposed 9.4 percent rate increase filed last year.

But Wednesday's filing, according to the state Department of Insurance's lead attorney Sherri Hubbard, is a different filing based on data from a different year.

"We'll have to carefully review it to see if the Bureau's requested 6.7 percent increase is warranted," Hubbard said in a news release.

Since the NCRB employs essentially the same methodology of determining rates as it did last year, Hubbard said there was some concern that the proposed increase is unwarranted.

If the NCRB and state insurance officials are unable to reach an agreement on this year's rates, as they were unable to do last year, another hearing will be set for later this year.