“It is important to ensure that insurance regulatory reform legislation will produce efficiencies and meaningful results without creating additional onerous, costly bureaucracy,” said David A. Sampson, PCI’s president and CEO. “PCI is committed to helping craft sound public policy in cooperation with forward-thinking elected leaders. We hope that this markup will help this legislation adhere to principles of good regulation, enhance solvency protection for policyholders, and encourage a competitive insurance marketplace.”
PCI’s Board of Governors has not yet taken a position on H.R. 5840, the Insurance Information Act of 2008, which would establish a federal Office of Insurance Information (OII). However, PCI believes several considerations must be taken into account, including:
· Avoiding unnecessary and expensive data collection requirements
· Preserving confidentiality of private data
· Defining and limiting federal preemptive authority over state laws
“We advocate that any preemption of state laws, if necessary, be accomplished by legislative action and not simply left to be developed through an administrative procedure,” Sampson said. “The legislative process is the most appropriate way of answering public policy questions, such as how to harmonize this proposal with existing laws like the McCarran-Ferguson Act.”
Regarding H.R. 5611, the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2008 (NARAB II), PCI’s Board of Governors supports the NARAB II legislation, which seeks to streamline the process of reciprocal producer licensing on a national basis, in principle. However, there are terms in the bill that are not explicitly defined.
“PCI supports NARAB II in principle,” Sampson said. “We look forward to working with the subcommittee to clarify and improve this good legislation.”
About PCI
PCI is composed of more than 1,000 member companies, representing the broadest cross-section of insurers of any national trade association. PCI members write over $194 billion in annual premium, 40.1 percent of the nation’s property/casualty insurance.