We would love to hear from you. Click on the ‘Contact Us’ link to the right and choose your favorite way to reach-out!

wscdsdc

media/speaking contact

Jamie Johnson

business contact

Victoria Peterson

Contact Us

855.ask.wink

Close [x]
pattern

Industry News

Categories

  • Industry Articles (21,155)
  • Industry Conferences (2)
  • Industry Job Openings (35)
  • Moore on the Market (414)
  • Negative Media (144)
  • Positive Media (73)
  • Sheryl's Articles (800)
  • Wink's Articles (353)
  • Wink's Inside Story (274)
  • Wink's Press Releases (123)
  • Blog Archives

  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • May 2008
  • February 2008
  • August 2006
  • McRaith: Insurance Industry ‘Inextricably Connected’ to Global Capital Markets

    September 23, 2014 by Jeff Jeffrey

    WASHINGTON – Federal Insurance Office Director Michael McRaith pushed back against the oft-cited claim the insurance business does not pose systemic risks to the U.S. financial system and should not be regulated as though it carries that level of risk.

    Speaking before a packed house at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies annual conference in Washington, McRaith said insurance was not among the causes of the recent financial crisis. But he said the insurance industry is “inextricably connected” to capital markets across the globe so it makes little sense to leave insurance out of the ongoing discussion about how to prevent systemic risks to the financial system.

    “That connection with capital markets is growing, and we see that in the different types of capital being invested in the reinsurance space,” McRaith said. “There is an increasing nexus between insurance and capital markets, so financial stability conversations have to include the insurance industry.”

    McRaith said the U.S. insurance industry accounts for $7.3 trillion in assets. And as global markets become more integrated, McRaith said some of the largest insurance companies in the United States will generate more than 50% of their revenue outside the country.

    “That leaves supervisors in those marketplaces wondering how consumers fit into the system of regulation,” McRaith said.

    McRaith’s comments took place during a highly anticipated panel focused on federal and international regulatory developments.

    He was joined on stage by Missouri Insurance Commissioner John Huff, who until last week was the sole state insurance regulator serving on the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Also participating were National Association of Insurance Commissioners Chief Executive Officer Ben Nelson and Thomas Sullivan, who was recently named the senior adviser for insurance for the Federal Reserve Board.

    Much of the panel’s discussion focused on the steps being taken by the FIO, the Fed, the FSOC and state regulators to ensure the United States speaks with one voice when engaging international regulators in negotiations about how to oversee insurers with global footprints.

    “It really comes down to good old-fashioned shoe leather,” Sullivan said. “Each of these agencies is speaking to each other on an almost daily basis. There is a genuine effort to work together.”

    That coordination is going to be essential to ensuring that whatever regulatory changes that are implemented in the United States do not “layer onto” the regulations already in place, Huff said.

    That said, NAMIC President and CEO Chuck Chamness, who moderated the panel, said the insurance industry has concerns about the speed with which the International Association of Insurance Supervisors and the G-20’s Financial Stability Board are moving to implement global capital standards and other international regulatory standards.

    “There is a concern among our members about what is seen as us not being in charge of the process,” Chamness said.

    McRaith said the international standards were being developed by consensus among international regulators and that no one “can just walk into the room and say this way of doing things is the best because this is how we do it.”

    But Huff said the United States should be doing more to push the IAIS to be more open in its process for developing regulators standards.

    The IAIS has drawn fire recently for a proposal to limit the number of interested parties who may participate in meetings where standards are crafted. The IAIS has said the aim of the proposed rule is to ensure meetings move ahead without becoming bogged down in debates. Under the rule change proposed by the IAIS, stakeholders would be invited to attend meetings “when necessary” in order to provide comment on specific issues. The IAIS said that would allow the meetings to remain transparent, while becoming more efficient and effective. The rule would go into effect on Jan. 1.

    But representatives of the insurance industry argued it will exclude stakeholders from policy discussions and could result in rules that do more harm than good.

    This week, the U.S. House and Senate introduced resolutions that would put the country’s lawmakers on record as disapproving of a proposal by the IAIS’s proposed rule change (Best’s News Service, Sept. 19, 2014).

    Nelson said the transparency issue is just one area where the United States should be doing more to put pressure on international regulators. He said the capital standards for systemically important insurers being developed by the IAIS should do more to take into account the fact the U.S. state-led regulatory system makes capital less fungible across a group’s entire enterprise because each legal entity is regulated separately.

    “That is by design and that system has worked,” Nelson said. “We also need to know that just because we need to be respectful of Solvency II, it doesn’t mean we have to adopt Solvency II. Common results can be achieved through very different systems if they are overseen properly.”

    Sullivan said the Fed had no plans to adopt international regulatory systems outright. “Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen has made it clear that we will go through the usual rule making process before any changes are implemented. We will publish proposed rule changes, seek comment and then adopt rules consistent with our usual process.”

    The panel also discussed the covered agreements being developed by the FIO, the U.S. Trade Representative and international insurance regulators.

    Chamness said the industry was interested in the progress toward developing those agreements, given that they can supersede state statutes under the Dodd-Frank financial reform act.

    Many of the covered agreements that are being developed have to do with the level of collateral foreign reinsurers must carry in order to do business in the United States.

    McRaith said the FIO and USTR would move forward with a covered agreement “only when it is in the best interest of the United States.

    More will be said on the covered agreements in the FIO’s soon-to-be-released annual report, he said, noting it would be coming out in the “next few days.”

     

    Originally Posted at A.M. Best on September 23, 2014 by Jeff Jeffrey.

    Categories: Industry Articles
    currency