Regulation/Legislation

While comparisons to mold and asbestos are inevitable, liability insurance exposures arising from the installation of tainted Chinese drywall in Southeast homes will not grow to asbestos-like proportions, legal experts predicted recently.

Subcontractors and builders have not been frequent targets of the lawsuits over defective Chinese drywall so far, but that could soon change, a lawyer said recently.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure on May 7 calling for a study of the availability of property insurance for homes where Chinese drywall is present.

It will take at least three-to-five years for American International Group to repay the tens of billions spent by taxpayers to keep the beleaguered company afloat--and that's only if the capital markets cooperate, AIG's head informed Congress last week.

The National Conference of Insurance Legislators sent a letter last week to Congress insisting that proposals for financial services regulatory reform involve state and federal regulators as equal partners.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) is asking the Treasury Department to "tread carefully" in providing financial aid to life insurers with property-casualty operations.