As the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, it’s clear that fall is officially here. Children are back in school, and all of us are diligently working to complete the many tasks before the end of the year. I am pleased to share some of these with you.
Testimony Before Congress
On Sept. 12, I testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs alongside Steven Seitz, director of the Federal Insurance Office, and Thomas Sullivan, associate director of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. My testimony focused on the two areas that have received the most attention here and abroad: 1) the development of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors' (IAIS) insurance capital standard (ICS); and 2) the development of the holistic framework for systemic risk in the insurance sector.
My testimony cautioned that presently the U.S. delegation views the draft ICS as inherently problematic and the NAIC is pursuing an aggregation method as an alternative that is not only comparable but also superior to the ICS in several respects. I stressed that it is critically important that international regulatory standards be developed in a manner that are adaptable to our markets and do not threaten their stability. And, I reiterated that the NAIC remains committed to continued engagement in international insurance standard-setting discussions alongside our Team USA colleagues to help ensure this result.
Life Insurance Awareness Month
September was Life Insurance Awareness Month. The NAIC communications staff worked with consumer advocates and the Life Insurance Online Guide (A) Working Group to create a toolkit for all the state insurance departments to use. It included three press releases, one consumer alert, one consumer insight, an updated Life Insurance Buyer's Guide, weekly social media posts and a Twitter chat. Thanks to all who participated in this year’s effort.
Focus on Flood
The #YourRiskIsReal campaign continued its efforts to educate consumers about the importance of flood insurance with a satellite media tour and survey.
The media tour included interviews with 29 radio and television stations across the country. Each interview stressed the importance of making sure that consumers are properly covered for disasters, that flood insurance improves resiliency and that state insurance departments serve as valuable resources to consumers on all insurance matters.
The NAIC-commissioned survey found that there is a gap in Americans' understanding of the role flood insurance plays in disaster resilience. Following are the survey highlights:
Roughly half of Americans (51%) don't know that homeowners insurance doesn't cover damage/loss caused by a flood event. About a third (31%) incorrectly think it's covered and about 1 in 5 (21%) are not sure.
Nearly 4 in 5 Americans (79%) don't know that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant amounts are not based on the value of the recipient's home.
More than half of Americans (53%) say they or someone they know have been a victim of a flood event.
Less than a quarter of Americans overall (23%), and just 29% of those residing in the South, think it is likely that their current home will be impacted by a flood event.
The Regulators Podcast
The third episode of The Regulators is now available on Spotify and Spreaker. In this edition, NAIC CEO Mike Consedine sits down with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to talk about climate risk and resiliency.
Please take a listen to this month's podcast.
NAIC-JFSA Insurance Dialogue
NAIC leadership met with representatives from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) in Washington, DC, for their 11th Insurance Regulatory Dialogue. The group discussed regulatory issues of mutual interest and key issues under consideration at the IAIS, including the ICS and the holistic framework.
State Legislator Orientation
The NAIC is hosting the 12th Annual State Legislator and Government Official Program during the Fall National Meeting in Austin, TX. The NAIC will host sessions specifically designed to educate state legislators and government officials about the fundamentals of state-based insurance regulation, engage them in key regulatory and policy developments, and provide an overview of NAIC services to the states.
Up to $3,000 per jurisdiction is provided to offset travel expenses for your state legislator(s) or government official(s) to join you in attending the Fall National Meeting. These funds are intended to cover reasonable transportation (e.g., airfare, train), lodging and meal expenses. Their national meeting registration fee is complimentary.
Please send an email to Chara Bradstreet (cbradstreet@naic.org) by Friday, Nov. 1, with the names and email addresses of the state legislators/government officials you would like to invite to attend. A special, online meeting registration link will be sent directly to each legislator/government official. If the NAIC can be of any assistance in reaching out to your legislator(s) or government official(s), or if you have any questions, please contact Chara Bradstreet at the above email address or at (202) 649-4997.
NAIC.org Website Updates
You may have noticed some changes to the NAIC.org website over the past few months. We are working to make the site easier to use and to keep it updated ahead of a larger redesign project.
One change you may have noticed is a redirect from naic.org to naic-cms.org. These redirects are the result of the NAIC staff moving forward with a State Ahead project to migrate the NAIC website to a content management system (CMS) that runs from the cloud. This process redirection allows the migration while keeping the website up and running. This project began in July 2019 but has become more visible with the homepage of NAIC.org being redirected to the NAIC-CMS.org.
Once the migration of all the content from the static NAIC.org website to the cloud-based CMS is complete, the NAIC-CMS.org domain will be changed so it is once again NAIC.org. We anticipate completion of this phase of the project in early 2020.
