NAIC Member Strikes Back: FIO "Unconstitutional"

If Rep. Ed Royce's (R-Calif.) confrontational letter to the NAIC, sent Feb. 28, was timed to force some kind of reaction during the body's March 3 to 6 Spring national meeting in New Orleans, it would appear to have succeeded. Congressman Royce, a long-time proponent of Optional Federal Charter (OFC) demanded that the NAIC clarify whether it is or is not a regulator. Speaking at the NAIC meeting, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak called the FIO unconstitutional and called upon other state insurance departments to investigate the federal office. SNL's Sean Carr reports:

…Doak announced that he asked Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt to investigate the constitutionality of the FIO. The announcement, made at a joint committee of state regulators and legislators, was met with silence.

The FIO is a usurpation of states' rights and the traditional system of state-based insurance regulation enshrined in the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945, Doak told SNL after the meeting. "It's eventually going to get into oversight of everything in the insurance department," he said.

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