Modernizing Insurance Regulation

Over the next five years there will be many ideas presented and debated on the appropriate regulation of insurers. The Dodd-Frank Act calls for the creation of a Federal Insurance Office, with a mandate to bring to Congress a plan for "modernizing insurance regulation." Dodd-Frank also created a mechanism under the key new entity, the Federal Systemic Oversight Committee (FSOC), to take on a regulatory role for non-bank holding companies (including insurers) deemed to be "systemic." There is much controversy about this issue in particular, with regulators and insurers debating the fundamental question: are insurers systemically risky financial institutions?

This expert team of contributors addresses those questions as well as the changing regulatory and economic landscape of the insurance industry, offering insight into what future institutions will look like and how they must adapt now. Topics covered include:

• Insurance industry concerns
• The impact of Dodd-Frank
• Systemic risks and insurance companies
• Federal versus state regulations
• The insurer safety net

Contributors to this work include top academics, CEOs of major insurance companies, state regulators, and those appointed under Dodd-Frank to fill insurer expert roles in the federal government, including Governor Dirk Kempthorne, Anna Paulson, Scott Harrington, Scott Campion, Roger Ferguson, Theresa Vaughan, Eric Dinallo, Shawn Cole, Peter Gallanis, and David Cummins.

JOHN H. BIGGS is the former Chair and CEO of TIAA-CREF, one of the largest national insurance companies in the U.S., and an Executive in Residence at New York University.

MATTHEW P. RICHARDSON is the Charles E. Simon Professor of Applied Financial Economics at New York University Stern School of Business. He is the co-editor of Restoring Financial Stability and Regulating Wall Street.