SC Big "I" leader Jon Jensen, who is also chairman of the national government affairs committee, testified before the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month in a hearing on the modernization of insurance regulation.
President of Correll Insurance in Spartanburg, Jensen was the only representative with the perspective of a "main-street" insurance agent.
In his testimony Jensen remarked on the Federal Insurance Office's (FIO) long-overdue report on “Ways to Modernize and Improve the System of Insurance Regulation in the United States.” The report, originally due in January 2012, was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank), which created FIO.
“The recommendations offered in this report are, for the most part, modest in scope and suggest that the insurance regulatory system is functioning at a high level and does not require a significant overhaul or restructuring,” said Jensen. “IIABA agrees strongly with several of these recommendations including FIO’s call for the adoption of the much-discussed NARAB II producer licensing reform legislation and is skeptical about others.”
Jensen presented the association’s position in agreement with the FIO report that insurance regulation could be improved and modernized in certain areas, but that any federal action should be targeted and limited with day-to-day regulation left in the in the hands of state officials.
The FIO report endorsed the need for Congress to enact the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (NARAB II) legislation. The association has lobbied for the bill for several years and is pleased that it was recently passed by the Senate.
View Jensen's full statement
View full hearing webcast archives
View FIO report on Modernizing Insurance Regulation