For the International Association of Insurance Supervisors,achieving globally acceptable principals for insurance supervisioncontinues to be a work in progress, but members say they are closerthan they've ever been to realizing that goal.

During a news conference yesterday, Peter Braumüller,IASA executive committee chairman and managing director forinsurance and pension supervision of Austria's Financial MarketAuthority, says the association is much closer to "[promoting]effective and globally consistent supervision of the insuranceindustry."

"I think we have come a long way in the last 19 years since [theIASA] was established," said Kevin M. McCarty, NAIC president andFlorida Insurance Commissioner. "The NAIC is a founding member ofthe IASA and I think our goals today are similar to when we werefirst established."

McCarty said that, when working to achieve global standards,members must be cognizant of "the differences that function welland stress the importance of common outcomes when looking forglobal convergence."

Regarding the identification of global systemically importantinsurers (known as G-SIIs), Braumüller said thatdetermining the methodology and setting the standards should becompleted by early next year. By the spring of 2013, plans call forcoordination between the Financial Stability Board (aninternational financial authority and standards board) and otherregulators to identify any global systemic insurers "if there areany."

When asked if there would be anything of substance coming out ofthe current IASA meeting in Washington, Braumüller pointedto the work of the group's committees and the build-up ofconsensus.

"What we are doing is very hard work behind the scenes by ourcommittees, and I think the progress you will see is the reports wewill issue [toward] a globally improved system," saidBraumüller.

Therese M. Vaughan, NAIC chief executive officer, said her senseof the meeting is that "there has been a particularly good sharingof views."

She said that the sharing of divergent opinions has producedgood progress, pointing to discussions around ComFrame, wheremembers are trying to come up with a system that will be helpful toall regulators around the globe.

"It's an incremental process," said McCarty of the IAIS's work."We have roadmaps and we are meeting our deadlines. The other partof what our organization does is education of its members of thecore principals and how to implement the core principals.Identifying the important insurance issues and education is acritical part of our agenda."

Vaughan added, "We are struggling through how can you have moreglobal supervision when there are some fundamental philosophicaldifferences in some respects. But we are making very goodprogress."

Yoshihiro Kawai, IAIS secretary general, said the nature of themeetings has changed over the years from a philosophical discussionof regulation to technical discussions about insurance regulationswith the aim of achieving a consistent regulatoryfuture.