The leader of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) today asked members of Congress to keep an international capital standards proposal from applying in the United States.

Eric Cioppa — the Maine insurance superintendent and the NAIC’s president — told members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that letting the current draft of the standards take effect would keep U.S. insurers from matching their investments and their insurance and annuity obligations in a sensible way.

“This potentially jeopardizes the ability of insurers to offer retirement products such as life insurance and annuities and make long-term investments,” Cioppa said at the hearing, which was streamed live on the Web.

“I’m hearing that, over in some markets, insurers are actually abandoning these products,” Cioppa said.

The Senate Banking Committee organized the hearing to look at global insurance regulatory standards.

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