Insurers and other capital markets participants, including sponsors of structured assets, should note an important development from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) that could result in regulatory...more
Sponsors of defined-benefit pension plans contemplating taking steps to de-risk their plans should consider recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on pension...more
At its June 18 meeting, the Valuation of Securities Task Force (VOSTF) of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) voted to expose a new draft of its controversial proposal, available here, to allow the...more
Insurers with unwanted runoff blocks of business should consider the latest guidance from insurance regulators on potential transactional structures that could mitigate this issue. On May 13, the Restructuring Mechanisms (E)...more
Insurers that outsource investment management to affiliates should consider new guidance from insurance regulators on such arrangements. On March 19, 2024, following its March 16 session at the National Association of...more
New York-domiciled insurers should consider new guidance from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to determine whether they might be exempt from group capital calculation (GCC) requirements. In its proposed...more
On Feb. 21, 2024, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) announced that it had adopted the NAIC Statement on Environmental, Social, and Governance Policies for the insurance sector. The 50-plus state and...more
On Feb. 2, 2024, the Property & Casualty Insurance Committee of the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) adopted a new Public Adjuster Professional Standards Reform Model Act (the Act). The Act goes before...more
Widely reported allegations of fraud at an offshore company this past summer have drawn attention to the use of letters of credit (LOCs) to secure reinsurance obligations. The company, now in bankruptcy, specialized in...more
Culminating a four-year-long process, a key working group of insurance regulators has adopted new standards for determining whether an investment held by an insurance company should be characterized as a “bond” evidencing a...more
New guidance from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) takes aim at improper discrimination by life and annuity writers in the state. DFS Insurance Circular Letter No. 6, issued on July 17, explains that New...more
Large insurers that operate across national borders should consider recent guidance on capital standards from the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), in particular on the kinds of instruments that make...more
Property-casualty insurers should take note of letters sent by the U.S. Senate Budget Committee on June 9 to prominent insurers seeking information on climate-related matters. The letters are available here and seek...more
As of March 11, the Securities Valuation Office of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has removed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) from the list of approved banks (“qualified U.S. financial institutions,” or...more
On March 9, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) announced the criteria, available here, that will be used to assess whether the Aggregation Method, or AM, provides comparable outcomes to the...more
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) recently announced its regulatory priorities for 2023. Insurers should consider the extent to which these matters impact them and the prospect that insurance...more
Internationally active insurance groups (IAIGs) will want to consider the implications of recent guidance from international insurance regulators on capital standards. These standards mandate the relevant amounts of capital...more
Internationally active insurance groups (IAIGs) with U.S. domestic insurers should be alert to key changes in regulatory oversight being considered by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). These changes...more
Parent companies of insurers doing business in New York would be required to file a “group capital calculation,” or GCC, with the Superintendent of Financial Services under legislation introduced in the state Senate on May 3,...more
Insurers with legacy blocks of business, or with other motivations to enter into block transfers of business or corporate split-offs, should consider a recent regulator call on so-called Insurance Business Transfers (IBTs)...more
Insurers writing variable annuities in New York will want to focus on newly proposed requirements from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) on separate account contracts...more
Insurers and others are closely following efforts by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to develop a new, comprehensive, “principles-based” definition of debt securities for purposes of insurers’...more
Insurers and fund advisers should consider newly proposed guidance from insurance regulators on funds’ use of derivatives in the context of regulatory capital treatment of a fund’s units, shares or interests. Once finalized,...more
When is an insurance commissioner not a governmental authority? A federal district judge reminds us that a state insurance commissioner, when acting as receiver of an insolvent insurer, acts in a different capacity to his...more
Insurers and reinsurers navigating the increasingly complex rules on reciprocity for collateral requirements should consider recent guidance from the leading U.S. standard-setting body. On June 17, 2021, the Reinsurance...more