Risk Management

NU readers answering our first online poll agreed recent clashes between Washington and AIG make federal insurance regulation more likely. This week's poll asks if AIG will be able to repay its bailout funding. Respond at www.property-casualty.com.

Paul Magaril, regional manager and counsel for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, has been named a member of the New York task force designed to examine and issue recommendations on troubled self-insured workers' compensation trusts

Just as President Obama got his health care reform initiative started, a key point of controversy during his campaign against Sen. John McCain reared its ugly head--the notion that employer-paid coverage should no longer be tax-exempt.

Insurance trade organizations said they were successful in fending off proposals to further increase assessments on carriers as part of the proposed New York State budget that state leaders agreed on over the weekend.

Two House Democrats last week introduced legislation that would repeal the antitrust exemption afforded insurers under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, but would retain the authority of states to regulate the industry.

In the midst of our worst economic crisis since The Great Depression, everyone is eager to choose one target as the scapegoat for the entire financial mess. Not surprisingly, most are pinning a good part of the blame on AIG

As discussions heated up over whether to give Washington broad authority to regulate insurers posing systemic risks to the economy, the controversy cooled somewhat last week over retention bonuses paid to players at AIG's Financial Products unit.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's cautious statements of support for an optional federal charter for insurers is provoking reactions pro and con from property-casualty insurance company trade groups.