Modernizing U S Insurance Regulation And The Role Of Global Reinsurance Markets

The insurance sector is a significant part of the U.S. economy (with one estimate putting it at 7 percent of GDP) and an essential asset protection tool for American families and businesses. This book details strengths and weaknesses of current insurance regulatory systems (prudential and marketplace), providing considerations for determining where and how to modernize, and offering a way forward to increase the effectiveness of insurance oversight in the United States. Insurers operating in the United States rely on reinsurers, both foreign and domestic, to support the issuance of new policies, to minimize fluctuations in loss experience, and to limit and diversify individual and portfolio risks, particularly in the case of catastrophes and natural disasters. This book also summarizes the history of reinsurance as a product and an industry, and outlines the various important functions of reinsurance. The book emphasizes that global reinsurers are vital to U.S. insurers and thus important for the general economic prosperity of the United States, including through enhanced availability and affordability of insurance.

The future of the insurance regulation begins now For those involved with the insurance industry, from investmentprofessionals to policy makers, and regulators to legislators,tremendous change is coming. With insurance premiums constitutingan ever-growing portion of annual U.S. GDP and provisions of theDodd-Frank Act specifically calling for modernization of insuranceregulations, the issues at hand are pervasive. In ModernizingInsurance Regulation, these issues are described against abackdrop of the political and industry discussions that surroundinsurance, regulation, and systemic risk. Experts Viral V. Acharyaand Matthew Richardson discuss a variety of issues with topthinkers in the fields of finance, derivatives, credit risk, andbanking to bring to light the most germane elements of this ongoingdiscussion. In Modernizing Insurance Regulation, Acharya andRichardson call on the expertise of all the relevant stakeholderswithin government, academia, and industry to offer a well-roundedand independent view of insurance regulation and how the evolutionof this key industry affects the U.S. economy now and in thefuture. Provides an overview of the feasibility of maintaining astate-level regulatory structure Offers a view of the issues from top academics, industryleaders, and state regulators Explores the debate surrounding the insurance industry andsystemic risk Provides an in-depth look at upcoming changes under theDodd-Frank Act Modernizing Insurance Regulation provides a look into thecrucial changes coming to insurance regulation and an overview ofhow those changes will affect almost everyone.

Many risks face the global insurance industry today, including the aging populations of developed countries, competition from other financial institutions, and both disparate and quickly changing regulatory demands, to name a few. The book s contributors offer their unique perspectives on challenges confronting the insurance industry and how attendant risks can be most effectively managed.

In this report, Treasury presents a series of "short-term" and "intermediate-term" recommendations that could immediately improve and reform the U.S. regulatory structure. The short-term recommendations focus on taking action now to improve regulatory coordination and oversight in the wake of recent events in the credit and mortgage markets. The intermediate recommendations focus on eliminating some of the duplication of the U.S. regulatory system, but more importantly try to modernize the regulatory structure applicable to certain sectors in the financial services industry (banking, insurance, securities, and futures) within the current framework.