WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, the U.S. House of Representative unanimously passed legislation introduced by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Mike Johanns (R-NE) clarifying a provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to streamline regulations for insurers. The bill passed the Senate in June and now heads to the President’s desk for signature. It provides the Federal Reserve with the authority to take into account the significant distinctions between banking and insurance when setting capital standards.

“This commonsense fix ensures that traditional life, property, and casualty insurance are not held to the same capital standards as banks,” Brown said. “While strong capital standards are crucial, they must make sense. Applying bank standards to insurers could make the financial system riskier, not safer. I thank Sens. Collins and Johanns for their work on this important legislation and I urge President Obama to sign this bill immediately.”

Specifically, the Insurance Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014 would:

  • Add language to Section 171 of Dodd-Frank to clarify that, in establishing minimum capital requirements for holding companies on a consolidated basis, the Federal Reserve is not required to include insurers to the extent they are engaged in activities regulated as insurance at the state level;
  • Provide a mechanism for the Federal Reserve, acting in consultation with the appropriate state insurance authority, to provide similar treatment for foreign insurance entities within a U.S. holding company where that entity does not itself do business in the United States; and
  • Limits the ability of the Federal Reserve to require insurers which file holding company financial statements using Statutory Accounting Principles to instead prepare their financial statements using Generally Accepting Accounting Principles. 

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