Thus far, the debate about an optional federal charter for insurance companies has focused primarily on whether and how federal regulation of U.S. insurers will improve services for insurance consumers in the United States. But insurance, like banking and securities, is increasingly becoming a globalized market. U.S. insurers are increasingly...

Has the time come for a federal chartering system for insurance companies?

Insurance companies are currently regulated entirely by state governments. During this congressional session, it is expected that Senators Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) will cosponsor legislation that would create an optional federal charter for insurance, allowing companies to organize under federal rather than state laws. Advocates of...

The Treasury Department’s plan to reform the federal regulatory structure for financial services has focused unusual attention on the insurance sector, which is part of the financial services industry but regulated solely at the state level. Among other things, the Treasury recommended that insurers have the option, like banks, to...

This will be a full-day conference on the prospects and directions of reform in insurance regulation. Cosponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, Georgia State University, and the Risk Foundation, the conference will include papers by well-known insurance and financial services scholars. Subjects will include the optional federal...

The new congress needs to work with President Bush to modernize laws governing financial and nonfinancial activities and set a uniform policy on privacy of financial information.

The Committee believes that, like national banks, insurance and securities firms should have the option to choose a federal regulatory regime that will have the same preemptive authority currently available to the OCC.

With the change of leadership in the incoming Congress, the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee believes it would be useful to review and reiterate some financial agenda items that the Committee has considered at this and past meetings.