	Background

Insurance companies constitute a major segment of the U.S. financial services industry. The industry is often separated into two parts: life and health insurance companies , which also often offer annuity products, and property and casualty insurance companies , which include most other lines of insurance, such as homeowners insurance, automobile insurance, and various commercial lines of insurance purchased by businesses. Different lines of insurance present different characteristics and risks. Life insurance typically is a longer-term proposition with contracts stretching over decades and insurance risks that are relatively well defined in actuarial tables. Property and casualty insurances typically are shorter-term propositions with six-month or one-year contracts and have greater exposure to catastrophic risks. Insurance companies, unlike banks and securities firms, have been chartered and regulated solely by the states for the past 150 years. The states have also developed a coordinated system for insurer resolution, including guaranty funds designed to protect policyholders in the event of insurer insolvency. The two large legislative overhauls of financial regulation in the past two decades, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA) and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), expanded the federal role in insurance, but states continued as the primary regulators of insurance following these acts. The Dodd-Frank Act altered the post-GLBA regulatory structure, but left the basic functional regulatory paradigm largely the same. The act gave enhanced systemic risk regulatory authority to the Federal Reserve and to a newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), including some oversight authority over insurers. The Dodd-Frank Act also included measures affecting the states' oversight of surplus lines insurance and reinsurance and created a new Federal Insurance Office (FIO) within the Department of the Treasury. Following the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and Dodd-Frank, international insurance issues have been of greater interest to Congress. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) named several U.S. insurers as global systemically important insurers (G-SIIs), and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has been developing a multifaceted set of regulatory standards to apply to G-SIIs and other internationally active insurers. The United States and the European Union (EU) negotiated a covered agreement addressing a long-standing dispute over reinsurance collateral as well as questions about how U.S. insurers would be treated under the EU's new "Solvency II" regulatory regime. Legislation in the 115th Congress

Possible insurance regulatory issues before the 115 th Congress include
overseeing the implementation of, and possible amendments to, the Dodd-Frank Act, including specific legislation, such as P.L. 115-61 , H.R. 10 , H.R. 115-174 , S. 1360 , and H.R. 3762 / H.R. 4537 / S. 488 . P.L. P.L. Section 211 of P.L. International Insurance Standards Act (H.R. 5059 . Committee-Reported Legislation

			Business of Insurance Regulatory Reform Act (H.R. 3861)

H.R. 4483)

H.R. 4885)

H.R. 5502)

H.R. 5666/S.
Insurance companies constitute a major segment of the U.S. financial services industry. The insurance industry is often separated into two parts: (1) life and health insurance companies, which also often offer annuity products, and (2) property and casualty insurance companies, which include most other lines of insurance, such as homeowners insurance, automobile insurance, and various commercial lines of insurance purchased by businesses. Different lines of insurance present different characteristics and risks. Life insurance typically is a longer-term proposition with contracts stretching over decades and insurance risks that are relatively well defined in actuarial tables. Property and casualty insurances typically are shorter-term propositions with six-month or one-year contracts and have greater exposure to catastrophic risks.
Since 1868, the individual states have been the primary regulators of insurance with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) acting to coordinate state actions and collect national data. In accordance with the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, the states have operated as the primary insurance regulators with congressional blessing, but they have also been subject to periodic congressional scrutiny. Immediately prior to the 2007-2009 financial crisis, congressional attention on insurance regulation focused on the inefficiencies in the state regulatory system. A major catalyst was the aftermath of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA; P.L. 106-102), which overhauled the regulatory structure for banks and securities firms, but left the insurance sector largely untouched.
The 2007-2009 financial crisis refocused the debate surrounding insurance regulatory reform. Unlike many financial crises in the past, insurers played a large role in this crisis. In particular, the failure of the insurer American International Group (AIG) spotlighted sources of systemic risk that had gone unrecognized. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank; P.L. 111-203), enacted following the crisis, gave enhanced systemic risk regulatory authority to the Federal Reserve and to a newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). The Dodd-Frank Act also included measures affecting the states' oversight of surplus lines insurance and reinsurance and created a new Federal Insurance Office (FIO) within the Department of the Treasury.
Following the financial crisis and Dodd-Frank, international insurance issues have been of greater interest to Congress. In particular, the development of various regulatory standards by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has been the subject of both hearings and legislation. In addition, using Dodd-Frank authorities, the United States negotiated a covered agreement with the European Union (EU) addressing a long-standing dispute over reinsurance collateral as well as questions about how U.S. insurers would be treated under the EU's new "Solvency II" regulatory regime.
A variety of legislation addressing insurance regulatory issues has been introduced in the 115th Congress with one bill enacted. Issues recurring in multiple bills include amendments to the Dodd-Frank Act provisions on FIO and FSOC (P.L. 115-61; H.R. 10; H.R. 3861; H.R. 4483; H.R. 5666/S. 3177) and international insurance standard negotiations (P.L. 115-174/S. 2155; S. 1360; H.R. 3762; H.R. 4537/S. 488). Individual legislation has been introduced on other topics, including licensing of insurance claims adjusters (H.R. 3363), discrimination in automobile insurance (H.R. 4885; H.R. 5502), and Federal Reserve oversight of insurers (H.R. 5059).