Insurance Group Solvency Supervision: Proposed Enhancements 2012 (Audio-only)

Taken from the briefing Insurance Group Solvency Supervision: Proposed Enhancements 2012 recorded June, 2012.

Regulators in the U.S. and internationally have been working on ways to enhance oversight of insurance groups that include both regulated insurance entities and non-regulated entities.  These efforts are in response to the perceived gaps in regulation of financial groups identified from the 2008 financial crisis and in the International Monetary Fund’s 2010 assessment of insurance regulation in the U.S. pursuant to the Financial Sector Assessment Program.

Listen to Parimah Hassouri and H. Michael Byrne, Partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, and Robert B. Kasinow, Director at Examination Resources, LLC as they discuss enhancements to insurance group supervision.

Lecture Topics  [Total Time: 01:03:20]

• The NAIC’s 2010 amendments to its Model Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act and Regulation and the states' continued commitment to a “windows and walls” approach to regulatory groups by which regulators will rely on holding company disclosures and other reporting to provide clearer “windows” into group operations in order to enhance existing “walls” of solvency protection.
• The NAIC’s Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) initiative under which U.S. insurers and their holding company groups would be required to conduct annual self-examinations of their own risk management process and their determination of capital adequacy prospectively up to three to five years to enable regulators to assess the quality of their risk management efforts.
• Potential supervision of insurers that are determined by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to present systemic risk to the U.S. financial system, known as Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFI's), possibly from a recommendation by the Federal Insurance Office (FIO). Additionally the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) recently released GSIFI assessment criteria for exposure that will be used to determine which insurance entities may present systemic risk globally.
• Solvency regulation in Europe and the determination of third-country regulatory “equivalence” under Solvency II and the potential impact of Solvency II on U.S. insurers, for both those headquartered in the U.S. and in Solvency II compliant non-U.S. jurisdictions.

Presentation Material

• Insurance Group Solvency Supervision: Proposed Enhancements