FIO Modernization Report 13 Months Late, Along With Other Deliverables

Early fears that the Federal Insurance Office might turn out to be an activist organization attempting to tamper with the state insurance system and create burdensome new demands stand in contrast to the reality of seriously delayed reports from the FIO required by Dodd-Frank. This week the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) urged the FIO to deliver "long overdue reports without further delay," within its oversight plan for the 113th Congress.

[Related: Groundhog Day for Insurance Reform: Zero Mention in Geithner's Dodd-Frank Update.]

A Lifehealthpro.com story details the extent of the FIO's delays to date:

The overdue FIO reports, required to be submitted to Congress under the Dodd-Frank Act, include an annual report to Congress that was due Sept. 30, 2011, on any actions taken related to preemption of state laws under an international insurance agreement; a report due Sept. 30, 2012, describing the U.S. and global reinsurance markets; the ability of state regulators to access reinsurance information; a review of the "Nonadmitted Reinsurance and Reform Act" provisions on the ability of state regulators to access reinsurance information for insurers due Jan. 1, 2013, and – perhaps the most highly anticipated – the modernization report, due almost 13 full months ago.

Concerns remain that the modernization report could contain proposals to change the existing regulatory system, but the HFSC plan said that the committee would work to limit the FIO to developing “expertise on insurance matters and does not impose unwarranted or excessive data collection burdens on the insurance sector or on small insurers in particular.”

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio