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February 02, 2012 at 09:46 AM
The Federal Insurance Office missed its first deadline when it failed to release a much-anticipated report to Congress on how to improve and modernize insurance regulation in the United States by the end of January.
The FIO was created as a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010. The Act mandated that the FIO present the report to Congress within 18 months of the Act becoming law. That meant it was due by the end of January, 2012.
When asked by Life Insurance Selling and www.LifeHealthPro.com for an update on when the report will be released, a Treasury Department spokesperson replied on Feb. 1: “We are hard at work preparing FIO’s first report on how to improve and modernize the system of insurance regulation in the U.S., and expect to send the report to Congress in the coming weeks.”
The FIO is quickly gaining a reputation for tardiness. It took the Treasury Department, where the FIO is housed, nearly a year – months longer than most industry observers expected – to fill the position of Director. Illinois Insurance Director Michael T. McRaith was appointed to the position of FIO Director in the spring of 2011, and took office last June.
The FIO did not begin soliciting public comment for the report until October 17, and accepted comments until December 19. Approximately 150 comment letters were received, many exceeding 20 pages. That left roughly a month and a half – including the peak holiday season – in which to analyze public input, draft and present the report to meet the mandated deadline.
