Date: April 13, 2017
Issue: CFPB, Insurance
To: Rep. Sean Duffy, Chairman, Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, House Financial Services Committee
Filing Type: Support Letter
Description: The American Council of Life Insurers, American Insurance Association, Financial Services Roundtable, Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to Rep. Duffy in support of H.R.__, to amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to clarify the authority of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection with respect to persons regulated by a State insurance regulator, and for other purposes.
Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act exempted the business of insurance from the purview of the CFPB and reiterated that the regulation of insurance had been delegated to the states. Yet, the CFPB continues to take actions that involve products and services that fall within the exclusive regulatory authority of the states. The organizations believe that additional revisions to the Dodd-Frank Act are needed to underscore the broad scope of the business of insurance exemption and to place parameters around the CFPB’s regulatory actions.
The state-based system of insurance regulation has been effective in promoting consumer protection. By further clarifying the limits of CFPB’s regulatory authority through this amendment and affirming the presumption of exclusive authority of a state insurance regulator, this key amendment will create certainty for insurers and consumers that there will not be duplicative or conflicting consumer protection regulations in the future.