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June 14, 2009 at 08:00 PM
WASHINGTON BUREAU — Life industry trade groups today told key members of Congress that they would support “responsibly crafted” optional federal charter legislation.
The legislation should include support for continued “viable state regulation,” the groups write in a joint letter.
The groups signing the letter include the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington; the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Falls Church, Va.; the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies, Fairfax, Va.; the Life Insurers Council, Atlanta; and the National Fraternal Congress of America, Oak Brook, Ill.
Advocates of the OFC concept want Congress to give insurers a choice between sticking with the traditional state-run insurance regulatory system and coming under the jurisdiction of a new federal insurance regulatory system.
“Life insurance carriers of all sizes and structures (large, small, stock, mutual, fraternal) as well as life insurance agents and brokers are united in calling for the concept of an efficient and effective optional federal regulator,” the groups say in the letter.
Because life insurers hold more than $5 trillion in assets and are the single largest source of corporate bond financing in the United States, “the life insurance industry is systemically significant to the American economy,” the groups write.
