Barney Frank, who is set to become the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, says whether all insurers need a choice between state and federal regulation is debatable.
Frank Keating, president of the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, said Tuesday that creating access to an "optional federal charter" as an alternative to state regulation "is the top priority of the ACLI for the third year in a row."
Here today at a conference organized by the Consumer Federation of America, Washington, Frank said an OFC proposal might work for life insurers, because life insurance "has increasingly become a financial product with no geographical issues."
A narrow, life-only OFC system might make sense, Frank said.
But Frank said the property-casualty insurance market is far more regional in nature, and he said he is "very skeptical" about whether OFC makes sense for the p-c industry.
