The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has commended the US Congress for passing the Insurance Capital Standards Act of 2014.
This legislation has been created to clarify the capital requirements for insurance companies regulated by the Federal Reserve.
Adam Hamm, NAIC president and North Dakota Insurance Commissioner, commented: “The NAIC has long advocated for this legislation that gives the Federal Reserve necessary flexibility to apply capital requirements appropriate to the insurance companies they supervise.”
“Now that the Federal Reserve has the flexibility, we urge them to use it to ensure that bank-like capital standards are not applied to insurance companies designated as systemically important or organised as savings and loan holding companies.”
The act will amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, allowing the Federal Reserve the flexibility to apply appropriate capital standards for insurance companies, rather than regulating insurers using the same standards set for banks.