Federal Legislative Developments

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On Friday, the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to delay implementation of federal flood insurance reform so that FEMA, Congress, and local officials can work to restructure the 45-year-old National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). …
Read More Massachusetts House Speaker Asks FEMA To Delay New Flood Insurance Rules

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has recently designated Prudential Financial, Inc. as a nonbank financial company that should be subject to consolidated supervision and enhanced prudential standards under Title I of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (also referred to as a systemically important financial institution or “SIFI”).
Read More FSOC designates Prudential as a SIFI

Continuing the controversy first discussed in our earlier article (a copy of which can be accessed here), uncertainty remains over whether the self-procurement tax and regulatory provisions of the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act, enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, apply to non-admitted insurance procured from a captive insurance company. …
Read More Does NRRA Capture Captives?

In recent years, the use of captives to help life insurers finance perceived excess XXX and AXXX reserves has accelerated. The NAIC continues to monitor the emerging practice and has drawn considerable attention to the matter through its solicitation of opinions by various players in the industry as well as through the publication of white paper on the matter and actions by the Principle-Based Reserving Implementation (EX) Task Force at the NAIC’s Summer National Meeting. …
Read More FIO Showing Increased Willingness to Intervene on Use of Captives to Finance Perceived Excess Reserves

The charter for the Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance (FACI), which had expired, has been renewed for two years. FACI provides advice to the Federal Insurance Office. Based on conversations with U.S. Department of Treasury officials, FACI expects the official notice to be published in the Federal Register later this month. …
Read More FIO/FSOC Update as of August 20, 2013

Below are recent activities on the FIO/FSOC front.

  • In its quarterly report to Congress issued on July 24, 2013, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) details its support for the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC’s) designation of AIG as a systemically important financial institution. 

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Read More FIO/FSOC Update as of August 6, 2013

This week, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch introduced Bill S. 1270, which, if enacted, would permit state and local governments to transfer their pensions programs to life insurers. The purpose of this bill is to strengthen government pension plans, since, due to the erosion of pension plan assets as a result of the financial crisis, there is generally perceived to be an enormous gap between the pension benefits required to be paid to workers and the funds available to make such payments. …
Read More Senate Bill to Permit Transfer of Public Pension Programs to Life Insurers

As we previously reported here, the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2013 (S. 534) was introduced to the Senate and the House earlier this year and, if passed into law, would establish the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (“NARAB”), a nonprofit corporation to license nonresident agents and brokers. The main benefit of NARAB would be that agents and brokers who are already licensed in one state could join NARAB and become licensed in all other states. …
Read More National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act Advances on Capitol Hill