State insurance regulators are trying to decide how urgent changing the rules governing life insurers' capital and surplus really is.
That topic surfaced Tuesday in Washington, during a hearing on the capital and surplus proposal submitted to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., by the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, in November 2008.
The NAIC Capital and Surplus Relief Working Group organized the hearing. After listening to the witness presentations, the participating commissioners ended up recommending most of the components of the ACLI proposal to the NAIC's plenary.
The plenary, the NAIC body that includes all voting members of the NAIC, is set to vote on the proposal Thursday.
Robert Hunter, who represented the Consumer Federation of America, Washington, and the Center for Economic Justice, Austin, Texas, at the working group hearing, said that he believes the hearing was a "sham" and that commissioners had already decided to advance the proposal.
The speed of the process for considering the ACLI proposal, the lack of openness of the consideration process, and the lack of consideration of consumer protections suggests a lack of interest in looking after consumer interests, Huntersaid.
The CFA is so disenchanted with the current state-based insurance regulation system that it is deciding whether to continue to support the system, Hunter said.
If a decision is made to support federal regulation, "there won't be an 'O' in it, Hunter said, alluding to the push for an "optional federal charter," or a system that would give insurers a choice between sticking with state regulation or coming under the jurisdiction of a new federal regulator.
Steven Goldman, New Jersey commissioner of banking and insurance, said he disagreed with Hunter.
Hunter may not agree with the way commissioners work for consumers, but commissioners do work for consumers, nonetheless, Goldman said.
"Nobody knows where the bottom of this financial crisis is, and it changes day by day for the worse," Goldman said.
ACLI Chairman Patrick Baird, who is president of Aegon USA, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a unit of AEGON N.V., The Hague, Netherlands, cited "unprecedented times" as a reason for advancing the ACLI proposal quickly.
Even if life insurers do not need capital now, they might at a future point, Baird said.
