View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2005/06/15/56142.htm
On Thursday, the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services will hold a hearing on the future of insurance regulation.
The hearing, which is the first official congressional action on the issue this year, marks an important step in enhancing insurance oversight and creating a more competitive and uniformly regulated insurance marketplace.
In response to the Committee’s hearing, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America President (PCI) and CEO Ernst Csiszar on Wednesday released the following statement:
“Insurance regulatory reform is the next important piece of a decades long effort to reform the way financial markets are regulated. We share the goal put forth in Chairman Oxley’s and Rep. Baker’s SMART Act approach of creating an efficient regulatory environment that enhances competition and ensures effective oversight. The SMART Act is an incremental, needs-based approach that offers the best opportunity to facilitate competitive markets and effectuate state-based reforms.
“There are a significant number of areas in which insurance regulation needs reform. However, the single most significant element must be the creation of truly competitive markets by eliminating outdated and ineffective price controls on individual and commercial insurance policies. Chairmen Oxley and Baker are committed to this goal and we commend them for making this the cornerstone of their proposal.
“Well regulated competition will offer consumers the greatest choice in terms of price and coverage, maximize efficiencies for industry, and allow consumers, not regulators, to drive the demand for improved products and services. PCI is committed to working with members of Congress to craft legislation that will enhance competitive markets, create more uniform regulatory standards, and preserve the best qualities of the state-based regulatory system.”