Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judge Rules Stanford’s U.S. Receiver to Keep Control of Ponzi Scheme Case
Aug 1 2012 // Allen Stanford’s U.S. court-appointed receiver may keep control of the process to collect and distribute the convicted Ponzi schemer’s assets to victims, defeating a bid by Caribbean liquidators, a U.S. federal...
What to Know About the New Flood Insurance Program
Jul 31 2012 // If it were a dam or a levee, it would have been replaced ages ago. Yet the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has stayed afloat despite a regular leaking of funds since its inception in 1968. The much-needed,...
New Louisiana Insurance Laws Address Citizens, Proof of Insurance, DWIs
Jul 31 2012 // In addition to suspending the 10 percent surcharge rule on property insurance provided by Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort in certain coastal parishes, recently passed state legislation includes provisions...
Geneva Association’s Fitzpatrick Warns against Mixing Bank and Insurance Regs
Jul 31 2012 // After 39 years of gathering, collating and disseminating the facts and figures relevant to the global insurance industry the world’s leaders and shakers are finally paying attention to the findings and...
US Congressional Negotiators Reach Deal on New Iran Sanctions
Jul 31 2012 // U.S. lawmakers moved a step closer to finalizing new sanctions aimed at further restricting Iran’s oil revenues after negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives agreed on a compromise bill on...
Alabama Bans Texting While Driving Aug. 1
Jul 30 2012 // Starting Wednesday, texting, emailing and instant messaging while driving will become illegal in Alabama, with violators facing fines and possibly higher insurance rates. That is, if they don’t have a wreck...
A Decade Later: Is Sarbanes-Oxley Working? – Analysis
Jul 30 2012 // When Peregrine Financial collapsed earlier this month, a nagging question resurfaced. As in the implosion of Lehman Brothers, the fall of Bernard Madoff and other cases in recent years, many asked: Where were the...
West Virginia Mine Regulators Slow on Inspections, Permits
Jul 27 2012 // West Virginia mine regulators have failed to meet internal goals for timely inspections and permits, a legislative audit concluded, but agency officials disagree with the auditors over why. The report released this week to...
Drought Bill May Get Washington to Act on Farm Bill
Jul 27 2012 // A comparatively low-priced disaster bill for livestock producers hit by the worst U.S. drought since 1956 may be the ticket to passage for a $500 billion farm bill now in limbo in Congress. Republican leaders in the House...
Conference: Risk, Returns, Regulation, and More Regulation
Jul 26 2012 // Coming off a rough few years of recession, then a disaster prone 2011 – and then more global uncertainty in 2012 – the world and the insurance industry have a few things to look forward to in the next year. They also...
Rejected Emails Cause Headaches for Texas Insurance Regulators
Jul 26 2012 // The Texas Department of Insurance recently was inundated by hundreds of emails regarding homeowner insurance rates, and the department now has the task of finding out why the majority of them were rejected by...
House Backs Obama Quashing of Safety Rules for Child Farmworkers
Jul 26 2012 // The House of representatives this week barred the labor secretary from imposing new safety rules for children working on farms, putting a legal stamp on a Labor Department decision to put off action on the rules. The Labor...
Judge Seeks More Details on Dewey Law Firm’s Bonuses
Jul 26 2012 // A judge on Wednesday demanded more detail on a plan by Dewey & LeBoeuf to pay out as much as $450,000 in performance-based bonuses to employees helping to wind down the bankrupt law firm’s operations. Judge...
Former Citigroup Chief Weill Surprises with Call for Break-Up of Big Banks
Jul 26 2012 // Sanford “Sandy” Weill, the tycoon who built financial conglomerate Citigroup Inc. into a massive U.S. commercial and investment bank, said it is time to split up the biggest banks so they can go back to growing...
Oil Firms, Regulators Miss Major Accident Indicators: Gulf Spill Report
Jul 25 2012 // Transocean and BP, trade associations, and U.S. regulators largely judged the safety of offshore facilities by focusing on routine personal injury and fatality data such as dropped objects and trips and falls when they...
North Carolina Property Insurance Reform Law Comes Up Short
Jul 24 2012 // North Carolina’s property market problems are well known but thus far answers remain elusive even after lawmakers approved a bill that does little more than what one industry expert said, “just stuck more...
FEMA Backing Away From Vermont Funding Assurance
Jul 23 2012 // A top state official stunned lawmakers last Friday with the announcement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency apparently was backing away from funding assurances to help replace the Vermont State Hospital and...
Feds To Take Over Hawaii Job-Safety Regulation
Jul 23 2012 // The federal government will temporarily take control of parts of Hawaii’s authority to regulate workplace safety. In response to federal concern to staff reductions in the Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health...
N.Y. Judge: Aon’s Poaching Suit Against Alliant Ins. Can Proceed
Jul 23 2012 // A New York court ruled recently that Aon Risk Services Northeast can proceed with its lawsuit against California-based Alliant Insurance Services involving employment covenants. Aon alleged that several of its former...
Nevada to Exit NIMA
Jul 23 2012 // Nevada is leaving the surplus lines tax clearinghouse to which it belongs, Nevada’s insurance commissioner confirmed this month. Nevada is the latest in a string of states to exit the Non-Admitted Insurance...
