Washington
Two House members say they will propose creating a federal office of insurance regulation in a bill that would incorporate support for all National Association of Insurance Commissioners model laws.
The OIR bill, to be introduced after the President’s Day recess, also would call for establishing a federal consumer protection office in all 50 states, according to Reps. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Ed Royce, R-Calif.
The federal OIR would work in concert with the proposed “systemic regulator” that Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has talked about, Bean and Royce said today during a press conference.
The systemic regulator would have the authority to oversee the activities of any financial services firm, regardless of its products, if the activities presented a potential risk to the financial system, according to Frank.
Bean and Royce’s OIR would have the power to oversee all the units of any insurance company that was federally regulated, not just the insurance units, Bean and Royce said.