Insurance Industry Pushes IAIS for Early Access During Policy Development
April 5, 2016 by Thomas Harman
NEW ORLEANS – U.S. insurance industry officials made their push for greater involvement in earlier stages of international insurance regulatory development, while the International Association of Insurance Supervisors appears to make moves to address the situation.
Andrew Stolfi, a former Illinois regulator who is now the IAIS’ senior policy advisor and chief counsel, sought out the desires of IAIS’ critics during a question and answer session with “interested parties” during the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Spring National Meeting.
The call for greater participation in the development process has been a consistent drumbeat from the U.S. insurance industry and state regulators since the IAIS voted to revoke observer status from interested parties who had paid fees to gain access. Effective Jan. 1, 2015, the IAIS allowed stakeholders to attend meetings where regulations are being negotiated only when necessary in order to provide comments on specific issues (Best’s News Service, April 28, 2015).
But Stolfi told his audience the IAIS is “committed to continuously evaluating and improving the way in which we engage stakeholders and that’s what we’re going to start doing today.” Its executive committee made the topic one of its priorities for 2016 along with working on international capital requirements and ComFrame, Stolfi said.
He said the number of stakeholder sessions the IAIS has been holding in an attempt to gain input will increase from five in 2015 to seven this year, with two such events having occurred already and a third scheduled for March in Singapore.
In the short-term, the new task force will focus on stakeholder participation in IAIS’ global seminar set for June and its annual conference in November in Paraguay. The latter will be open to stakeholders and the IAIS has asked its communications officers to work with stakeholders to design the program. The task force’s other main charge is to create a mid-term goal in developing a comprehensive plan for stakeholder engagement this year.
“We’re getting improvement around the edges,” said Steve Broadie, vice president, financial policy at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “I’m glad they’re doing it, but it’s not nearly far enough.”
U.S. stakeholders seek more involvement much earlier in the policy development process than the consultations on IAIS policies they are currently allowed to discuss.
David Snyder, PCI’s vice president, international policy, told Stolfi that it would be helpful if the IAIS provided “interim opportunities” to meet with subcommittees as they work, particularly at the point where they have completed drafts, but prior to the start of consultations. He said stakeholders “would have some specific things to react to and perhaps make the consultation much more meaningful.” Misunderstandings that creep into written comments could be avoided, and critical changes could be made before the draft goes to consultation. “Because, frankly, my experience in consultation is, you don’t get many changes at that point. It’s just human nature,” he said.
Michelle Rogers, director, financial and regulatory policy at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, told Stolfi that comment letters to the NAIC’s ComFrame Development and Analysis Working Group would be a good place to find what industry wants. She said the materials from the IAIS were not reaching stakeholders in a timely fashion. “If you don’t see the 40-page- or 100-page-long document or presentations in advance, then it’s very difficult for people to be prepared enough to ask intelligent questions,” she said. For an upcoming stakeholder meeting to occur next week, no agenda had been prepared, she said. Many times, stakeholders received materials before meetings less than a week in advance. She said that while IAIS tries to provide the most up-to-date information to participants, it needs to balance that with the ability for stakeholders to provide meaningful feedback.
Rogers also asked for extended sessions with IAIS policymakers. “We definitely like the idea of trying to combine multiple meetings. I think that would be beneficial to all of the stakeholders around the world if there were more than a day or two of meetings at a location,” she said. “It would make a lot more sense to travel and to put the effort into being prepared for questions.”
(By Thomas Harman, Washington Bureau manager, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com)
