National Insurance Consumer Protection Act Introduced in House
On April 2, 2009, Congresswoman Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) and Congressman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) introduced the National Insurance Consumer Protection Act, a successor bill to earlier optional federal chartering legislation introduced without action in the last two sessions of Congress.
In addition to creating an Office of National Insurance and an optional federal charter for insurance companies, the bill proposes the creation of a National Insurance Guaranty Corporation, which would provide guaranty protections for federally chartered insurers that are declared insolvent. The benefit limits of the national guaranty fund would mirror those in the NAIC Guaranty Association Model Act. National insurers would still contribute to state guaranty associations.
NOLHGA will distribute more information on this new legislation to its member guaranty associations in the near future. The text of the bill, along with a three-page "fact sheet" issued by the bill's authors, is available on the NOLHGA Web site in the Publications/Documents/Reports section (under the Member Content menu) in the Special Reports section. Users will have to log in to access the files.
Staff Contact - Sean McKenna