On April 23, 2010, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gave written testimony during to a hearing held by the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding the nation’s financial rating agencies.  According to Attorney General Blumenthal, the three large financial rating agencies skewed their ratings of structured finance securities in order to garner more fee-based ratings business from the very same clients that were marketing those financial instruments. 


Read More Connecticut Attorney General Labels Credit Rating Agencies as “Enablers of the Wrongdoing,” and Calls for Regulatory Reform to End their System of Compensation

The Health Care and Reconciliation Act (the “Act”), signed into law on March 30, 2010, imposes a tax on annuity income to help pay for the multi-billion dollar reform package set forth in both the Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law on March 23, 2010.  Specifically, the Act imposes a 3.8% Medicare contribution tax on individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year, and couples who earn more than $250,000 a year. 


Read More Health Care Legislation Imposes Tax on Annuity Income

Pursuant to Executive Order No. 25 from the New York State Governor’s office establishing a Regulatory Review and Reform Program, the New York State Insurance Department (the “Department”) is inviting comments from regulated entities and other interested parties to identify existing regulations that impose unnecessary, burdensome or excessive costs, paperwork or other requirements. 


Read More New York Insurance Department Opens Its Regulations to Public Comment

On March 28, 2010, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) issued a press release announcing adoption of revisions to the existing Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation (the “Model”). 


Read More NAIC Adopts Revisions to Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation

On 12 April 2010, the IAIS published a guidance paper on the “treatment of non-regulated entities in group-wide supervision” (the Guidance), which is available here


Read More International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) publishes guidance paper on insurance groups

Eithne McCarthy, from the Financial Services Unit of the European Commission’s Competition Directorate General (DG Comp), made a presentation on the new Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (BER) to the Law Society’s Competition Section on 13 April 2010. 
Read More EU/UK: Presentation by Eithne McCarthy – the new Insurance Block Exemption Regulation