P/C Execs to Form Committee to Provide Congress with Feedback on Regulatory Reform
A new committee of top-level insurance executives will generate industry input toward federal regulatory reform measures that loom for the financial services sector on Capitol Hill.
“We recognize that this is the primary issue,” said Ben McKay, senior vice president for federal affairs for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “We knew it would be regardless of who won the presidency.”
During a conference call, McKay said the PCI board’s committee will include chief executive officers from large and small companies and would strive to provide “Main Street-level feedback to Congress.”
McKay said the key will be engaging in the debate as nonrecipients of the federal Troubled Asset Relief Act, the $700 billion federal bailout plan that he said trade groups are opposed to tapping.
“There will be some insurance-specific reforms, and I think there will have to be because insurance companies are becoming so complex and so diverse,” McKay said.
McKay and other PCI officials reacted to President-elect Barack Obama’s victory, and the impact of sweeping victories that gave Democrats a solid grip on Congress. McKay said there could be wholesale change at the Republican leadership level. He also lamented the defeat of Financial Services Committee member Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla, and New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu, co-sponsor of the National Insurance Act, which would create an optional federal charter system for both life and property/casualty insurers (BestWire, Nov. 4, 2008).
“That is significant especially as we enter the financial services debate, which will probably be the first order of business for the 11th Congress,” McKay said.
McKay expects the issue of credit-based insurance scoring to re-emerge and another push to fold windstorm coverage into National Flood Insurance Program when it expires on March 6.
Source: Source: BestWire Services | Published on November 7, 2008
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