Insurance Weighs Heavily On Agenda Of House Financial Services Panel
By
Washington
The House Financial Services Committee plans an aggressive insurance-related agenda during the 108th Congress, including examination of state regulation, product approval and consumer protection.
In an oversight plan published last week, Committee Chairman Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, said the plan reflects areas where the committee and its subcommittees expect to conduct oversight over the next two years.
The insurance industry takes up a significant part of the plan, starting with insurance solvency.
The committee says it will continue its examination of the solvency accreditation program of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., focusing on the steps taken by the NAIC to update the program since its inception in the early 1990s.
Similarly, the committee says, it will examine such issues as the quality of market conduct regulation, agent licensing and product approval.
In particular, the committee continues, it will consider what further measures might be necessary to promote uniformity in agent licensing.
As for product approval, the committee says it will evaluate efforts by the states to achieve uniformity, efficiency and timeliness in their review of forms.
This review, the committee says, will include an evaluation of the NAICs interstate compact proposal for life and health products.
More broadly, the committee says it will review various proposals for modernizing insurance regulation, including state-by-state improvements, coordination of state regulation through the NAIC, federal promotion of state uniformity and optional federal chartering.
The committee says it also plans to examine state consumer protection efforts.
Specifically, the committee says, it will examine such insurance marketing issues as the churning of life insurance, sales and marketing representations, coercion and pressure tactics, and product bundling.
