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November 24, 2008 at 10:55 AM
State lawmakers want to talk about how much better the states have been doing at regulating financial services companies than federal agencies have been.
Members of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Troy, N.Y., discussed the importance of protecting state insurance regulatory oversight this weekend at their annual meeting in Duck Key, Fla., according to NCOIL President Sen. James Seward.
Some fear that “Washington may look at the financial meltdown in a kneejerk way [and] push for federal regulation,” says Seward, who represents Oneonta, N.Y., in the New York state Senate.
“We are very proud of the fact that insurance companies are weathering this, and that those entities under state insurance regulation are coming through this [crisis] much better than those entities that are federally regulated,” Seward says.
The federal government “totally dropped the ball” when it came to regulating credit default swaps and other products and markets involved in the financial crisis, says Kentucky state Rep. Robert Damron, D-Nicholasville, Ky., the NCOIL vice president.
