WASHINGTON--The National Council of Insurance Legislators said its annual meeting next month will discuss ways to turn around the ailing economy and to map out a future regulatory structure for financial institutions.

A highlight of the event, to be held Nov. 20 through 22 at Hawk's Cay Resort in Duck Key, Fla., will be a panel discussion Nov. 22 entitled "U.S. In Financial Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here?," which will feature a group of financial experts, NCOIL said.

Rhode Island State Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, NCOIL's president, said in a statement, "With stock prices plummeting, credit markets freezing, and the federal government investing in private financial service companies just to keep them afloat, state legislators are looking for the light at the end of the tunnel."

He added that, "Congress would be best served to look to the state-regulated AIG [American International Group] insurance sectors that held strong rather than to the federally regulated divisions that led to our present crisis on Wall Street.

"We at NCOIL plan to encourage use of the states' effective mitigation efforts and discourage adding more bureaucracy to a federal system that in large part served as a breeding ground that produced the current crisis," Mr. Kennedy said.

Participating in the Nov. 22 roundtable will be Robert Easton, deputy superintendent and general counsel of the New York State Insurance Department; Carmen Balber of Consumer Watchdog; Doug Barnert of the Group of North American Insurance Enterprises (GNAIE); John Brown representing the Coalition Opposed to a Federal Insurance Regulator (COFIR); and Kevin McKechnie, executive director of the American Bankers Insurance Association and a leader of the Optional Federal Charter Coalition.

Witnesses and legislators will discuss factors that contributed to collapse of financial services giants, including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, and regulatory systems that may have failed.

Credit default swaps, an optional federal charter (OFC) for insurance, and review of past federal legislation, including the Glass-Steagall and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Acts, may be discussed as panelists and legislators consider what shape financial reform should take, Mr. Kennedy said.

On Thursday, Nov. 20, the NCOIL Financial Services & Investment Products Committee will discuss what led to the federal bailout of the AIG financial services conglomerate.

The NCOIL Institute for Insurance Policy will host a legislators' luncheon workshop entitled "Understanding the Basics: Derivatives, Credit Default Swaps, and Other Financial Instruments."

Howard Shapiro of Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller will deliver a keynote luncheon address entitled "U.S. Mortgage & Specialty Finance: No Place to Hide."

Mr. Shapiro will outline the causes of today's financial crisis, including issues surrounding recent growth in the housing market and consequences for financial services firms, NCOIL said.

Special Reports /

NCOIL Meeting To Discuss Regs. For Financial Concerns

Related Stories

Recommended For You