Duffy Co-Introduces Bipartisan International Insurance Legislation

Press Release

Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing & Insurance, today alongside Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA), co-introduced the International Insurance Standards Act of 2017.


Specifically, the International Insurance Standards Act would:

Ensure that any international agreements on insurance regulation reflect the successful U.S. regime (or, that if changes are to be made, they are enacted in the U.S. first and only then ratified in international forums).
Ensure that state insurance regulators are part of the U.S. negotiating team working on any international agreements.
Provide Congress additional formal oversight of any new international standard proposed by representatives of the U.S. federal government.
Background:

The business of insurance has been regulated by the States for over 160 years.
The state-based regulatory authority was formalized by the U.S. Congress in 1945 with the passage of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, and reaffirmed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010.
The state-based regulatory framework in the U.S. is the strongest and most robust insurance regulatory architecture in the world.
No other system of insurance regulation combines the state-based focus on policyholder protection with the four, interconnected aspects of:
consumer protection
solvency protection
market-conduct protection
resolution protection.
Currently, U.S. representatives are involved in ongoing negotiations regarding global insurance standards in international forums including the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) in Basel, Switzerland.

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