An upcoming federal insurance regulation bill could create a national system of regulation and supervision for nationally registered insurers, agencies, and producers, according to the bill’s authors.
The authors, Reps. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Ed Royce, R-Calif., now have provided an outline of the bill, which is set to be introduced when Congress returns from the President’s Day recess, according to staffers for Bean and Royce.
The bill, the “National Insurance Consumer Protection and Regulatory Modernization Act,” would allow the market to set rates for personal property-casualty insurance products.
The NICPRMA bill would establish a national system of regulation and supervision for nationally registered insurers, agencies, and producers, but states would keep responsibility for regulating state-licensed insurers, agencies and producers.
Insurers that chose to be regulated as national insurers would have to follow guidelines set by a new Office of National Insurance and file forms with the ONI.
Insurers and agencies would be examined for financial and market conduct, according to the bill outline.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is planning to propose the creation of a financial “systemic risk regulator” in legislation to be introduced by the end of the month.
Bean and Royce’s bill would give the systemic risk regulator the authority to monitor insurers.
The bill also would require federally registered insurance holding companies that have a predominant share of insurance businesses, as determined by the commissioner, to be regulated at the holding company level as an insurance holding company by the Office of National Insurance.