WASHINGTON — Financial services regulatory reform should include a dedicated, functional federal insurance regulator, according to eight financial services groups.
The groups wrote Tuesday to the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee to ask that the appropriate congressional committees consider the federal insurance regulator proposal as Congress deals with efforts to create a "systemic regulator."
The groups that signed the letter include Agents for Change, Washington; the American Bankers Association, Washington; the American Bankers Insurance Association, Washington; the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington; the American Insurance Association; the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Washington; the Financial Services Roundtable, Washington; and the Reinsurance Association of America, Washington.
Obama administration officials say the systemic regulator would oversee major non-bank financial institutions as well as banks.
Some groups have asked Congress to start by creating a systemic regulator with the authority to handle troubled financial firms, then come up with more comprehensive reforms later.
The groups that wrote the latest later say strong and uniform federal regulation and supervision of insurance companies, producers and holding companies "would reduce costs and risks to consumers and the economy."
