NCOIL President Criticizes Oxley Reform Roadmap

But NCOIL believes that mandating national insurance regulatory standards “could create a legislative vacuum whereby Congress would establish insurance regulatory standards and the state insurance commissioners would enforce them,” Geller writes. “That could nullify state legislators’ ability to respond to specific marketplace and consumer protection issues.”

States have been doing a good job of responding to insurance regulatory changes for 135 years, and insurance is more sensitive to geographical factors than other financial products, Geller argues.

“Given the uniqueness of insurance products, the individual states are best positioned to monitor the marketplace and protect consumers,” Geller writes. “With a few isolated exceptions, the insurance industry ? under the stewardship of state-level public policymakers ? has been free of the type of scandals and consumer abuses witnessed in other sectors of the financial services industry.”

Geller acknowledges concerns about lack of uniform insurance laws and regulations, but he says NCOIL is committed to helping to lead the effort to bring about regulatory uniformity.