NU Online News Service, May 12, 12:49 p.m.EST

WASHINGTON – Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin says the staffof the new Federal Insurance Office has already begun work andserved an "important consultative role" in advising on severalissues related to the new Dodd-Frank financial services reformlaw.

Wolin testified during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on howregulators are working to implement provisions of Dodd-Frank thatdeal with monitoring of systemic risk.

The FIO staff, which now includes former Illinois insurancedirector Michael McRaith, has provided "expert advice on theVolcker Rule study and rule writing, orderly liquidation authorityrule writing, and participated in the Financial Stability OversightCouncil insurance working group," says Wolin, adding the FIO hasbecome a provisional member of the International Association ofInsurance Supervisors (IAIS), where it will represent the UnitedStates.

The FIO is also leading the U.S. delegation for the insuranceand pensions committee of the Organization for EconomicCo-operation and Development, Wolin reports.

Wolin tells Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, "it would be premature"to comment on whether mutual insurance companies would be regardedas systemically significant.

At the same time, Wolin did not touch on the elusive subject ofthe independent member of the Financial Stability Oversight Councilboard. This is a priority issue for the insurance industry, and itis unclear based on Wolin's testimony when the Obama administrationwill deal with it.

According to Dodd-Frank, the independent member must benominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Wolin says the new advisory committee on insurance that theTreasury Department is being created to provide advice to the FIOand the Treasury Department will reserve half of its membership forstate insurance commissioners so that the FIO will benefit from theknowledge and regulatory experience of regulators.

"The remaining members will represent a diverse set of expertperspectives from the various sectors of the insurance industry(life, property and casualty, reinsurance, agents and brokers), aswell as academics, consumer advocates, or experts in the issuesfacing underserved insurance communities and consumers," hesays.