SEATTLE–The outgoing chairman of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America said yesterday that the organization's leadership is impatient with state regulators and is examining legislation that would give more input to federal authorities.
In that context, Gerald Whitburn, PCI chairman, told National Underwriter at PCI's annual conference here that he expects to see Democrats win control of the House of Representative, which represents an opportunity for the industry. Mr. Whitburn is also chairman and chief executive officer of Church Mutual Insurance Company, Merrill, Wis.
Mr. Whitburn said there has been a growing interest among PCI membership about what is happening at the federal level in regards to insurance.
At the same time, he said, “We sense across our board an increased impatience with NAIC [National Association of Insurance Commissioners] reforms [of insurance regulation].”
PCI, he noted, continues to communicate with and “nudge” the NAIC to stir action, but he wondered, “Are the sands of state regulation falling away from the footings?”
Asked if PCI was endorsing any of the current bills introduced in Congress for a change in regulation, Mr. Whitburn responded, “It's early, we're working on it.”
PCI, he said, takes it as a given that Democrats will win control of the House and that “as a result, a smart trade association is going to be in a listening mode as new leadership settles in.”
In Mr. Whitburn's view, a change in leadership “is an opportunity for a critical partnership at a critical time.” Because the current focus on Capitol Hill on insurance issues is relatively new, focus by trade associations “is critical. If we are going to have a broader federal involvement, we need to do it right.”
On another point concerning federal legislation, Mr. Whitburn said that insurers had pushed the Bush administration to pass an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, “and we may have to push them back again” to insure continuation of TRIA, which expires at the end of 2007.
The property-casualty industry, he noted, has $450 billion in surplus to insure against terrorism, but “not trillions, and we don't know what the threat is–it's classified–or how to price it.”
Meanwhile, modeling efforts to forecast terrorism catastrophe risk, in Mr. Whitburn's view, are “pretty sophomoric.”
On Wednesday Mr. Whitburn will be succeeded as chairman by Thomas J. Tierney CEO of the Vermont Mutual Group.
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