As Congress prepares to return to work Sept. 8 for anabbreviated session, a priority for the insurance industry will beensuring that legislators keep on their radar enactment of a billaimed at streamlining agent and broker licensing.

Creating a National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers(NARAB) has been a goal of the industry for a long time, and onewas created through a 1999 law. However, there were stringsattached to that law and state regulators were able to thwart itsimplementation by meeting certain thresholds.

Industry lobbyists, now armed with the support of stateregulators, believe it is this year or never for the bill, andthey're pushing hard for it.

For example, as noted by James C. Drinkwater, president of thebrokerage division of AmWINS, Inc., and co-chairman of thelegislative committee of the National Association of Surplus LinesOffices, Ltd. (NAPSLO), “This is critical legislation, and there isno industry opposition to it.”

Others pushing for NARAB include the Council of Insurance Agentsand Brokers (CIAB), the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers ofAmerica (IIABA) and the American Association of Managing GeneralAgents (AAMGA).

A provision creating NARAB is attached to S. 2244, the TerrorismRisk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2014, which passedthe Senate by a 93-4 vote in July.

It is also contained in H. R. 4871, the TRIA Reform Act of 2014,which was reported out late in July by the House Financial ServicesCommittee (FSC).

But the House FSC advanced its bill only on a party-line vote,and the industry has strong reservations about it. Moreover, theSenate bill contains a provision sun-setting NARAB over two years,and that is a source of concern for the industry.

Congress is unlikely to be in session for more than two weeks inSeptember, and won't return until after the mid-term elections. Asnoted by one industry lobbyist, lame-duck sessions are “notoriouslyunpredictable.”

14 years

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking minority member of the SenateBanking Committee, said during floor debate on the bill, “The ideafor NARAB is now 14 years old. We've been working on it literallyfor that long, and I'm hoping that in this legislation today we canget it across the finish line.”

The incentive, Crapo said, is that under the NARAB provisions,insurance commissioners of the states “will be able to better catchbad actors who after losing a license in one state more quickly toenter into another state.”

Crapo also said state regulators will serve on the board ofNARAB “with the same objectives they have as an insurancecommissioner—to protect the public interest by promoting the fairand equitable treatment of insurance consumers.”

NAPSLO's Drinkwater says NARAB will establish “vigorouslicensing and ethical requirements” for agents, as well as uniformcontinuing-education requirements.

Through a panel of state regulators and industryrepresentatives, “it will establish requirements on a multi-statebasis in lieu of every state having their own requirements forthese criteria,” Drinkwater says. “That will ensure there is thereis consistency to these requirements.”

Charles Symington, senior vice president for external andgovernment affairs for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokersof America, said NARAB II “would achieve much needed reciprocity inproducer licensing and help policyholders by permitting greatercompetition among agents and brokers.”

Joel Kopperud, CIAB director of government affairs, says CIABhas been working to see a national licensing regime for over 20years now, and “we've never been closer than we are today to seeingthis signed into law.”

Collins amendment

Another insurance bill that the industry is pushing for:Legislation that would give the Federal Reserve Board greaterflexibility in designing capital rules used in overseeing largeinsurance companies and insurance companies which operate thriftholding companies. The current rules are contained in Sec. 171 ofthe Dodd-Frank Act, called the Collins Amendment.

Washington Analysis said recently it expects the bill enactedbefore year-end, despite recently becoming bogged down in the HouseFinancial Services Committee after passing the Senate by unanimousconsent.

Washington Analysis said in an investor's note, “We thinklegislation is likely to pass during the lame duck session ofCongress at the end of the year, either as part of a Terrorism RiskInsurance Act (TRIA) reauthorization or a year-end wrap-upbill.”

The note also says, as with the NARAB bill, “There continues tobe no meaningful opposition to the bill in Congress or elsewhere inWashington.”

Additionally, “We assign very low odds to the Fed proposingcapital rules for insurers until Congress has provided additionalflexibility,” says Washington Analysis.