The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies applauded the introduction of legislation to protect state-based insurance regulation from being undermined by international regulatory standard-setting bodies.
The International Insurance Standards Act of 2019, introduced Sept. 27 by Reps. Denny Heck, D-Wash., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., would prohibit United States representatives engaged in international insurance negotiations from agreeing to any regulatory standard or proposal that does not recognize the U.S. system of state regulation.
“U.S. state insurance regulation has been the gold standard for solvency and consumer protection for more than 150 years, keeping authority in the hands of officials best positioned to recognize the unique risks facing their marketplaces,” said Jimi Grande, senior vice president of government affairs for NAMIC. “But U.S. officials remain engaged in overseas discussions with the goal of global regulatory uniformity that appears headed instead toward the creation of an ill-fitting and overly prescriptive international insurance capital standard.”
In November, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors will meet in Abu Dhabi where the body will vote to move forward with an international insurance capital standard that could ultimately be applied in a one-size-fits-all manner that would harm U.S. companies. Since representatives of the U.S. will be attending the IAIS meeting, they will be tasked with voting on the proposal.
“Insurance regulation is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, and we can’t put consumers at risk for the sake of global uniformity in insurance regulation,” Grande said. “NAMIC applauds Congressmen Heck and Budd for their work to make clear to our representatives that they cannot support any international proposal that does not explicitly recognize the U.S. system of insurance regulation.”
“Even amid the partisan rancor of Capitol Hill, the leadership of Congressmen Heck and Budd is another great example that protecting our system of insurance regulation has strong support from both sides of the aisle,” Grande said.