Connecticut’s state regulator expect federal role on risk
Connecticut’s insurance regulator Thomas Sullivan expects the US federal government to oversee regulation of the insurance industry, he told the Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum in New York yesterday.
Insurance regulation in the United States is currently done in each state but AIG's near-collapse last year is prompting calls for a national regulator.
Reuters reports: "You'll probably have a layer over (the current regulatory environment) of systemic risk regulation," said Sullivan, within the next year or two. But he said the US government's involvement was likely to stop short of offering a federal regulator to take the place of state regulators.
"How could Congress with a sweep of a pen replace 50 regulators?" Sullivan said.
Sullivan said consumers will push for the state system to remain, seeing this as a safeguard of policyholders' rights.
Pierre Ozendo, chief executive of Swiss Re America Corp, speaking at the same event, hosted by trade group the Insurance Information Institute, it could be a while before lawmakers, bogged down with trying to help the broader economy recover from recession, have time to consider changes to US insurance regulation.
Daniel Glaser, chief executive of Marsh said: "Some of the other issues have crowded out the urgency."
