Litigation

National Insurance Consumer Protection Act Proposal Is Unveiled

By John Darer

Congress is set to reveal will reveal its first Optional Federal Insurance Charter proposal today, entitled the "National Insurance Consumer Protection Act" (NICPA), introduced by Congresswoman Melissa Bean (D-IL) and Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA).

NICPA would establish a national regulator which would be optional for insurers, insurance agencies, and insurance producers, while states would maintain the responsibility of regulating those that are state licensed. The national regulator would operate from the newly created Office of National Insurance (ONI), housed within the Treasury Department.

The bill, in its current form, would require the federal Commissioner and state insurance commissioners to provide information with a Systemic Risk Regulator, which would recommend corrective actions to these regulators to deal with any state or nationally regulated insurance company whose attempted actions would have an adverse affect on the overall financial stability of the marketplace. If insurance regulators do not act, the Systemic Risk Regulator may do so directly on an emergency basis upon approval from the Coordinating Council for Financial Regulators, which would be Chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, and include the national Commissioner and the heads the Federal Reserve, SEC, CFTC, OTC, FDIC, OCC, and three state regulators appointed by the President.

As a work in progress the bill is expected to be refined with insurance industry input.

Meanwhile can't help but thinking that such a nutritious combination of Congress people ("Beans and Royce") could be the needed stimulus to get this thing "moving through the system"!

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on April 02, 2009 (boomark / email).