State insurance regulators working through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) joined their counterparts from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) to further regulatory cooperation on issues impacting both countries. The U.S.-China Insurance Regulation Seminar was held in Qingdao, China on July 24th and 25th, 2012.  This seminar is the eighth time that such talks have been held between the parties.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss, and former NAIC president, led the NAIC delegation at the seminar, which brought together nearly 100 participants, which included regulators, government officials and insurance industry representatives from both China and the U.S. The primary focus of the dialogue was on topics related to solvency, market conduct, and policy holder protection, and included discussions covering insurance regulatory reform in the U.S., product innovation in the property and casualty insurance market and the regulation of financial derivatives.  Both sides agreed that the U.S.’s and China’s insurance regulatory bodies should enhance cooperation, focus on risk-based insurance regulation, continue to strengthen the exchange of information regarding insurance regulation and coordinate their policies on insurance regulation.

This seminar represents the NAIC’s ongoing commitment to share best practices in insurance supervision globally.  As mentioned, this seminar succeeds several rounds of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), during which the two sides discussed various bilateral, regional and global issues.  Voss represented the State Insurance regulators at these talks, as well.1

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1The S&ED was established in 2009 by Presidents Obama and Hu and is led by Secretary Clinton and Secretary Geithner on the U.S. side and Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo on the Chinese side. The objective of the S&ED is to bring together both governments to make progress on issues of concern in the two countries.