On Saturday morning, Edwards Wildman attended this invitation only event at the 2013 Fall NAIC National Meeting regarding EU-US Dialogue. There were three separate panels of distinguished representatives from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Federal Insurance Office (FIO), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the NAIC, Commissioners from the States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania and from company representatives. The main subject of discussion was College of Supervisors, what is good about them, where they need to be improved, and their future.
A major issue the College of Supervisors face is confidentiality of the information they receive from companies, in addition to how the information is used and what information needs to be shared with the regulator participants in the College of Supervisors. There seemed to be agreement that not all information needs to shared with all members of the College of Supervisors, but it was not clear how that could actually be put into practice.
A major theme of each of the panels was that the regulator participants in the College of Supervisors need to be knowledgeable, have authority and be of the same level as those from the company since to date, the company participants are usually from the C Suite. Eventually, after the College of Supervisors mature, the regulators might drill down into specifics of the company. This would be by smaller groups of regulators, and it was mentioned that regulators might ask to speak with company representatives such as actuaries, underwriters and perhaps even the partner from the accounting firm in charge of the company.