Security risk

One of the most contentious subjects broached at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Fall 2009 meeting was the issue of a public catastrophe model.

Testifying before the House Small Business Committee, J. Douglas Robinson, chairman and CEO of Utica, N.Y.-based Utica National Insurance Group, said efforts to rein in the excesses of Wall Street firms might adversely impact smaller insurance companies.

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) is expressing gratitude for an amendment that counters efforts to exclude independent agents from the health care exchanges envisioned in America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200).

Insurance IT Budgets: It’s a tricky time for those who must make plans for next year, but where should insurers draw the line between caution and boldness?

While endorsements of an optional federal charter for insurers were easy to come by during the previous administration, the Obama administration has largely avoided offering an opinion on the controversial issue.

Photos from INN’s Women in Insurance Leadership Forum.

Association says their proposal offers a more comprehensive solution to cross-border reinsurance transactions.

While the universe of financial services regulation is in flux, one key component, a proposed consumer financial protection agency (CFPA), is taking shape. The CFPA will have a mandate to set rules governing all financial institutions,

Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) (www.naic.org) passed legislation today that adds changes to the Standard Valuation Model Law. When enacted by state legislatures, the changes, addressed at the Executive/Plenary session of NAIC’s Fall national meeting in National Harbor, Md., are designed to improve the way life insurers calculate the reserves held to protect consumer’s financial interests in insurance products, says the organization.

Vice President Joe Biden faced a standing-room-only audience yesterday at a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), where he discussed the Administration’s health care proposal and the need to create a level playing field in the insurance industry. Biden was invited to speak at the NAIC Fall meeting in National Harbor, Md., where he told members that the reform health care would not impact health insurers’ competitive set. “I want insurance companies to make money,” he said.

Federal and state authorities have a bone to pick with rating agencies, and insurers could feel the effect.

Insurers should think less about functions and the data itself, and focus instead on processes.

The Senator's plan would establish a timeline for accelerating the development, adoption and implementation of a set of operating rules for each HIPAA transaction.

Department of Health and Human Services allocates $25 million for medical liability pilot initiative.

A new study says that nearly 26,000 state and federal rules impacting the insurance industry will change or be created this year.

A mid-year report from IBM confirms that the World Wide Web is a very insecure place.

Gulf Coast construction standards are 'woefully inadequate' to withstand storm flooding, study finds.

Study’s findings of a lack of FCPA compliance, coupled with a potential increase in federal enforcement activities, could prove a perfect storm for D&O insurers.

Organization of mutual insurers says that seeking to apply the Community Reinvestment Act to insurance companies would be “forcing a square peg into a round hole.”

Consequential bills will advance in House in the coming weeks, NAMIC says.