IIC Votes to Dissolve – Mission Accomplished

The members of the International Insurance Council (IIC) at a meeting in Washington supported a resolution to dissolve the organization. In a joint statement IIC Chairman Joe Hamilton of Liberty International and IIC President and CEO Kevin T. Cronin, stated that “structural changes in the global insurance market have brought IIC’s members to declare IIC’s mission one that has been accomplished.”

“Now is the time for the IIC to leave the stage and take a bow for playing a central role in the industry’s most significant global insurance trade achievements of the past half-century,” the statement continued. In retrospect it noted the IIC’s record of significant accomplishments, particularly having “won the major policy battles relative to international insurance markets.”

“Twenty years ago, U.S. insurers and providers had limited to no access to most of the world’s markets,” the statement continued. “Regulatory regimes were highly restrictive and discriminatory against foreign insurers. The landscape has changed radically in that time frame, largely under the leadership of the IIC. Through individual country involvement and international forums such as the GATS and the WTO, the IIC has led the international industry to a new order in which market access is available worldwide, and enshrined in international agreements.”

It also noted that more recently the IIC has championed the opening up of some of the world’s potentially largest markets for insurance products and services in China and India.

The IIC “set a high bar and created model approaches for working with domestic and overseas government officials and industry leadership that many other industries have copied. This means IIC leaves an impressive legacy not only for our companies, but also more broadly for those involved in global business,” the announcement concluded.