Overhauling Insurance Regs Will Spur Customer Experience Spend

Last week, the Obama administration outlined its plans for post-meltdown financial regulatory reform in an 85-page framework that’s supposed to address a snarled regulatory structure that evolved in response to the financial panic of the moment. While most of the content addresses issues that are well known throughout the banking and financial markets industry, U.S. insurers didn’t escape the attention of the feds.

Short of calling for a federal charter, the framework instead proposes the creation of an Office of National Insurance (ONI) that will fall under the auspices of the U.S Treasury Department. The report outlined six principles of proposed insurance regulation that addressed systemic risk, capital standards, consumer protection, affiliate organizations, international coordination, but especially increased national uniformity through either a federal charter or effective action by the state. This last principle, in particular, could have big impact on insurer spending on overall regulatory compliance.