Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have found an area of agreement: They want the panel that decides which insurers are "too big to fail" to always have a member who knows something about insurance.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee has teamed up with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to introduce a modest but genuinely bipartisan bill.
The bill, S. 1463, would adjust the rules that apply to the "independent member" of the Financial Stability Oversight Committee who has insurance expertise.
Traditionally, state regulators have regulated insurance. Federal financial services regulators in Washington have focused on banks, thrifts, credit unions and securities brokers and paid little attention to insurers.
Drafters of the Dodd-Frank Act created FSOC to help federal financial services regulators monitor and understand any risk in any sector that could hurt the stability of the U.S. financial system or the U.S. economy.
FSOC also helps regulators decide which nonbank companies, including insurers, may need extra attention because they are "too big to fail" without hurting the financial system.
