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On Saturday, March 29th, 2014, the Emerging Accounting Issues Working Group & Statutory Account Principles Working Group held a meeting to adopt certain standards and to expose other proposals for comments. The sole topic of substantial debate surrounded moving forward with the Accounting for the Risk Sharing Provisions of the Affordable Care Act (the “Act”). …
Read More Live Blog: Emerging Accounting Issues Working Group & Statutory Accounting Principles Working Group Meeting

Speakers at the Spring NAIC Meeting in Orlando on the topic of insuring cyber liability risk offered commentary on risks and damages associated with cyber attacks in the United States, as well as how the insurance market has (and has not) developed to help mitigate risk. Representatives included district attorneys, practicing intellectual property lawyers, federal agents as well as state regulators. …
Read More Live Blog: CIPR Spring Event: Insuring Cyber Liability Risk (NAIC Spring Meetings)

Last week, we wrote about pending legislation in Massachusetts that would realign the state’s reinsurance regulations to make them more consistent with the increasingly global nature of insurance and reinsurance markets. …
Read More Massachusetts Legislative Committee Favorably Reports Reinsurance Credit Bill

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) has introduced a bill, S.2012, in an effort to clarify the application of Section 171 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) to insurance companies. Section 171 (codified at 12 U.S.C. 5371) requires insured depository institutions, depository institution holding companies, and nonbank financial companies to maintain certain capital levels on a consolidated basis (i.e., Basel III global capital standards). …
Read More Senate Bill Would Allow Federal Reserve to Exclude Insurers From Dodd-Frank Consolidated Capital Requirements

The Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Financial Services is due to report next week on HB 881, An Act Relative to Reinsurance Requirements. Sponsored by Representative Michael Costello of Newburyport, the bill closely tracks the NAIC’s Revised Credit for Reinsurance Model Law, which has already been adopted in eighteen states, including New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. …
Read More Massachusetts Legislative Committee Considers Reinsurance Credit Requirements

In a letter dated November 10, 2013 (the “Letter”) to the United States Senate Banking Committee (the “Committee”), the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) showed support for Committee members seeking to address the potential confusion regarding capital and leverage requirements for insurers regulated by the Federal Reserve due to being either considered (1) a thrift holding company, or (2) a systemically important financial institution as designated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. …
Read More Insurance Regulators Make a Plea to the United States Senate Banking Committee Regarding Capital Regulations for Insurers

On March 6, 2014, President Obama issued an Executive Order setting forth the foundation for imposing sanctions against any individual or entity responsible for or complicit in actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine or threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine. …
Read More New Executive Order Regarding U.S. Sanctions against Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine

At the International Insurance Relations (G) Committee meeting on Sunday, December 15, there were presentations by Gordon Brady, Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and Gabriel Bernadino, Chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA) on the development of international standards for insurance company solvency by the IAIS. …
Read More NAIC Disputes Need for Global Capital Standards

On November 24, Iran entered into a Joint Plan of Actionwith the United States, China, the Russian Federation, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the “E3/EU+3”), whereby in exchange halting to certain uranium enrichment activities and agreeing to be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the E3/EU+3 agreed to, among other things, suspend U.S. and E.U. sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical exports and associated services (“Joint Plan”). …
Read More Suspension of U.S. and E.U. Sanctions on Insurance Related to Iran’s Petrochemical Exports