Joel Ario

Pennsylvania / Oregon Insurance Commissions

Eyes

(p8) - Our job is to follow those complaints and address them in our marketplace and make that marketplace work for consumers at the local level.

NAIC - Joel S. Ario, Insurance Administrator, Oregon Insurance Division, Secretary Treasurer, National Association of Insurance Commissioners

2003 0506 - GOV (House) - Increasing the Effectiveness of State Consumer Protection, Sue W. Kelly (R-NY) --- [BonkNote] --- [PDF-123p,

Carolyn MALONEY (D-NY) - So if Financial Products was walled off and allowed to fail, the insurance portion would be safe and sound, and going forward, is that correct?
Mr. ARIO. Yes, the assets would be there and would be protected. (p48)
Mrs. MALONEY. Thank you.

2009 0318 - GOV (House) - Federal Aid to AIG Insurance, Regulators Panel - [PDF-380p

(p8) - Insurance is a different kind of product than either banking or securities or really any of the other financial products out there.
It is a more complex kind of product.
- What kind of policy will be offered to the consumer? What will be the price of the policy? What are the specific policy terms and conditions? What is included, what is excluded from the policy? What does the fine print say? Is a claim valid when it is filed? If it is valid, how much is it worth? These are all questions that are very complicated
They often lead to misunderstandings between consumers and insurers
and they often lead to consumer complaints to our offices.
...
Our job is to follow those complaints and address them in our marketplace and make that marketplace work for consumers at the local level.

-- NAIC - Joel S. Ario, Insurance Administrator, Oregon Insurance Division, Secretary Treasurer, National Association of Insurance Commissioners

2003 0506 - GOV (House) - Increasing the Effectiveness of State Consumer Protection, Sue W. Kelly (R-NY) - [PDF-123p, VIDEO-?] -

House - Committee on Financial Services - Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

(p19) - The reason the Federal Government decided to rescue AIG was because of the systemic risk created by Financial Products.
(p19) - To make matters worse, the counterparties to those swaps included many of the world’s leading financial institutions.
- It was to protect those institutions that the Federal Government acted.
(p19) - In Chairman Bernanke’s words, ‘‘We are not doing this to bail out AIG or their shareholders certainly. We are doing this to protect our financial system and to avoid a much more severe crises in our global economy. We know that the failure of major financial firms can be disastrous for the economy. We really had no choice.’’

-- Testimony of the Honorable Joel Ario, Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Insurance Department, On Behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners

2009 0318 - GOV (House) - American International Group’s Impact On The Global Economy: Before, During, And After Federal Intervention, Federal Aid to AIG Insurance, Regulators Panel (CSPAN), Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) --- [BonkNote]

Securities lending did not pose systemic risk and would have been resolved without any Federal assistance, but for the Financial Products debacle, which caused the run on the bank that took a net of $20 billion in Federal funds to fully resolve.
It is more than $40 billion out, but $20 billion held by the Federal Government today.

-- Testimony of the Honorable Joel Ario, Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Insurance Department, On Behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners