WASHINGTON BUREAU — Sen. Robert Corker, R-Tenn., says he would be "stunned" if the Senate failed to reach a bipartisan agreement on financial services regulation.
Meanwhile, Sen. Earl Benjamin Nelson, D-Neb., says he is withholding support of the legislation in its current form because he fears that certain provisions may impose unecessary regulations on insurers.
"I don't want to see any kind of solutions that get involved in insurance company operations," Nelson said Wednesday.
The Senate financial services bill draft, now known as the Dodd bill, would create an Office of National Insurance, subject potentially "systemically risky" insurers to federal oversight and contain provisions – similar to provisions in the House financial services bill — that would put the state of domicile of a reinsurer or surplus lines company in charge of regulating the reinsurer or surplus lines company.
The bill would address the systemic risk issue by making large financial services companies, including large insurers, subject to oversight by the Federal Reserve Board and a new Financial Stability Oversight Council.
