NU Online News Service, May 29, 3:21 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON–The German Insurance Association is calling on Congress to create an optional federal charter for insurers, saying federal regulation would promote "better regulation with no less scrutiny" than under the current system.
In a letter to the chairman and ranking members of the House Financial Services Committee, two top officials of the GDV, as it is known, said an OFC would "increase the prospect of greater international cooperation."
The two top officials of the GDV also said the proposed Bean-Royce bill should be amended to "explicitly provide for enhanced cross-border supervisory cooperation."
"This would help to avoid cost-intensive overlaps in regulation and would ultimately result in lower costs for American and European consumers," the letter said.
The letter was signed by R.P. Hoenen, president of the GDV and chairman of the board of management of HUK-COBURG Insurance Group, located in Coburg, Germany, and J. von Furstenwerth, chairman of the GDV's executive board and its chief staff official. The GDV is headquartered in Berlin.
The letter was sent to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., its ranking minority member.
The letter was intended as support for the Bean-Royce bill, the National Insurance Consumer Protection Act, H.R. 1880. The bill was introduced in the House April 2.
The letter said that except in the U.S., national insurance and reinsurance markets have become more and more integrated on regional and global levels.
"Establishing an option for insurance supervision at the federal level in the U.S. would certainly help to promote the mutual recognition between insurance supervisory authorities in the U.S. and in the European Union," the letter said.
"We know that this development is strongly supported by those U.S. companies that are members of our trade association who are doing business in Germany and other EU nations," the letter added.
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