A new data-reporting mandate the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is considering imposing on certain property/casualty insurers raises a variety of concerns both for insurers and their policyholders.
In response to a request for comments on the proposed data call, Triple-I has told FIO that the requested data would be duplicative, could lead to misleading conclusions, and -- by increasing insurers' operational costs -- would ultimately lead to higher premium rates for policyholders.
'Fulfilling this new mandate would require insurers to pull existing staff from the work they already are doing or hire staff to do the new work, increasing their operational costs,' Triple-I wrote.
'As FIO well knows, state-by-state regulation prevents insurers from 'tweaking' their cash flows in response to change the way more lightly regulated industries can. Higher costs inevitably drive increases in policyholder premium rates.'
