WASHINGTON--Congressional approval of federal regulation for insurance appears unlikely for 2009, and an optional federal charter may never be created, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. indicated in a recent confidential briefing to American Insurance Association directors, National Underwriter has learned.

Indeed, if insurance is addressed at all next year, the focus of the incoming Obama Administration and federal banking regulators will be on the life insurance side of the business, not property-casualty, FDIC Chair Sheila Bair told AIA directors in an off-the-record briefing on Nov. 14. A copy of a summary of her remarks was obtained by NU and confirmed through other sources.

Meanwhile, Ms. Bair said that plans to create an optional federal charter may fall by the wayside in Congress, as the administration seeks to consolidate regulatory agencies, not create new ones.

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