Regulation/Legislation

A Florida chief inspector general report on travel expenses at the states last-resort insurer concludes that such expenses incurred by Citizens board, management and employees -- while compliant with written policies -- are excessive by state standards, and recommends that Citizens be required to follow state-travel laws.

American International Group and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) are at odds concerning whether the insurer has authority to sue banks over virtually worthless mortgages they sold that drove AIG to seek a federal bailout.

Crop insurers have paid a record $11.6 billion to U.S. growers in compensation for losses due largely to widespread drought in 2012, the first money-losing year for the industry in a decade, the government said on Tuesday.

Farmers have spent 20 percent more on agricultural insurance in recent years to protect against crop losses from increasingly frequent bad weather events, according to reinsurer Swiss Re.

Insurance agents getting calls from clients about lost auto-insurance cards could soon become a thing of the past as more states seek to legalize the use of electronic ID cards.

Ongoing quarreling over the budget in Washington is causing anxiety in the insurance industrymuch more concern, it would seem, than the industrys ability to handle random weather events.