PC360 brings our readers the top quotes from major industryplayers for the week of April 9. Industry leaders comment on topicsranging from recent government-regulatory efforts in the U.S. andEurope, to the potential for an active wildfire season, to newefforts to cap crop-insurance subsidies.

ACE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Evan G.Greenberg commenting in a letter to shareholders aboutthe trend toward over-regulation in the U.S.and Europe and what he sees as wrongheaded efforts to implement“one-size-fits-all” insurance regulations for risk management,capital and governance:

“In the U.S. and much of Europe, we face an unrelenting assaulton business by government. [Some regulators and political leadersbelieve] the primary job of government is to protect its citizensfrom the evils of business.”

In a Willis report on commercial-insurance rates rising,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer JosephPlumeri helps risk managers frame the conversation about the emergingreality of having to pay more for coverages:

“The role of the insurer is to make sure they survive the stormsso that when their clients need them, they will be here. Whatinsurers offer…is their own resilience.

“We suggest that risk managers and others in charge of riskmitigation and risk transfer may benefit by taking a similar viewof your own work. That, ultimately, is your job as well: ensuringresilience.”

Federal Reserve Board Chairman BenBernanke discusses a “shadow-banking” system he says is responsible–even more sothan the housing crisis itself–for the financial crisis andprolonged economic slump. He used American International Groupas an example of how this system operated outsideof regulators' authority:

“[I]nsurance operations of AIG were supervised and regulated byvarious state and international insurance regulators, and theOffice of Thrift Supervision had authority to supervise AIG as athrift holding company, [however] oversight of AIG FinancialProducts, which housed the derivatives activities that imposedmajor losses on the firm, was extremely limited inpractice.”

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla.(pictured left) and Mike Becker, assistant vice presidentof PIA National (pictured right) offered very differentassessments of a Government Accountability Officerecommendation to cap crop-insurance-premium subsidies forindividual farmers or reducing subsidies for all farmers, orboth:

Coburn: “I applaud GAO for providing Congresswith yet another way to save taxpayer dollars and reformgovernment.”

Becker: “The program sustained multi-billiondollar cuts during the 2008 Farm Bill and additionalmulti-billion-dollar cuts during the most recent StandardReinsurance Agreement. …When it comes to budget cuts, cropinsurance has already done much more than its fair share.”

California Insurance Commissioner DaveJones commenting on his lack of authority toregulate health-insurance rates despite being able to regulatemedical-malpractice rates:

“It defies reason that the insurance commissioner has the legalauthority under Proposition 103 to reduce excessivemedical-malpractice-insurance rates for doctors, dentists, andother medical providers, but I don't have the authority to rejectexcessive health insurance or HMO rate increases for ordinaryCalifornians, their families, or their businesses.”

Insurance Information Institute President RobertHartwig issues the following warning regarding what couldbe an active year for wildfires in the U.S.:

“With more than 15,000 temperature records broken in the UnitedStates in March 2012 alone, combined with low precipitation andlittle or no snowpack across much of the nation's lower 48 states,this year could be very active one for wildfires and brushfires,including parts of the Northeast where such events are relativelyuncommon.”