NAIC Asks Insurers For Finite Reinsurance Rule

By Steve Tuckey

NU Online News Service, Dec. 6, 10:21 a.m. EST, New Orleans?A National Association of Insurance Commissioners panel has asked industry representatives to develop a model rule requiring more disclosure of controversial finite reinsurance products.[@@]

Such products have raised concern lately that they are not really mechanisms for transferring risk, but rather "smoothing" earnings to avoid balance sheet volatility that draws a negative reaction from investors.

The action came at Saturday's opening session of the NAIC winter meeting in New Orleans and was just one of the issues on the agenda related to investigations by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Both Mr. Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission have issued subpoenas to a number of firms for material concerning non-traditional finite insurance products.

Commissioners heard two hours of testimony Saturday on the proposed model law requiring disclosure of broker the contingency fees, which according to a lawsuit filed by Mr. Spitzer were used by Marsh brokerage to cover payoffs for steering customers to insurers who cooperated in a bid-rigging operations.

The NAIC meeting on the broker fee issue was reportedly arranged after sharp divisions surfaced among the commissioners as to how extensive the model should be. NAIC president Diane Koken said she hoped the full NAIC body could approve a model before Christmas by telephone conference call.

On finite reinsurance, industry representatives told members of the Property Casualty Reinsurance Study Group that there is ample guidance on the books already to ensure so-called finite reinsurance products actually transfer risk.

For nearly a decade, reinsurers have been developing loss-limiting features that have begged the question of just how much risk is being transferred.

Last year the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants wrote the U.S. Financial Accounting Services Board stating they needed more guidance, particularly in the area of certain loss limiting features on quota share reinsurance contracts.

"We joined the other trades in a letter to FASB [Financial Accounting Standards Board] saying we think the current guidance in FAS 113 works," said Steve Broadie, financial regulation manager for the Chicago-area-based Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

Mr. Broadie said that many such finite reinsurance products are already disclosed.

The industry has a deadline of next March to develop such a model, Mr. Broadie said.

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NAIC Asks Insurers For Finite Reinsurance Rule

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