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October 06, 2010 at 08:00 PM
Interested in perhaps the most influential job in the insurance industry? You have until Oct. 20, to apply.
That’s the deadline (finally!) being given to applicants for the brand-new position of director of the (also brand-new) Federal Insurance Office (FIO), which will be part of the Treasury Department. The Washington D.C.-based job will pay between $119,554 and $179,700 per year, according to the federal Web site where the position opening is posted.
The successful candidate will immediately step into an incredibly challenging position as the responsible party for turning a couple of pages of the 2,300-page Dodd-Frank financial reform act into a new agency that could potentially evolve into a powerful federal regulatory body in a matter of months.
The director will advise Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (who will appoint the director – hopefully by early November) on insurance issues and potential regulatory gaps that might be serious enough to damage the financial system, will serve as a non-voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), and help the FSOC identify significant insurers that ought to be supervised by the Federal Reserve Board. The director will also serve as the U.S.’s public face in negotiating international insurance agreements.
This new director and the very existence of the FIO is certainly cause for alarm for state insurance commissioners, who have served as the primary regulators of the insurance industry for more than a century. While the Dodd-Frank Act keeps the current state-run insurance regulatory system intact, many observers acknowledge the possibility that the FIO could lead to federal regulation of the industry.
