Government Hearings – 1991

Government Hearings - 1991

1991 0716 - GOV (House) -<WishList>
- California - Richard D. Baum, Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner
- House - Committee on Education and Labor - Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations

RTC: In the Midst of America's Real Estate Crisis, Hearing before the Resolution Trust Corporation Task Force of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Supervision, Regulation and Insurance of the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, 102nd Congress, July 16, 1991, The

Hearing to Receive the Holloway-Werner Report on SBA's Small Business Investment Company Program, Hearing before the Senate Small Business Committee, July 16, 1991

1991 0507 - UPI - Lawmakers: insurance firm failure portends wider problem, By Will Dunham - [link]
1991 - CQ Almanac - Insurance Industry Kept Exemptions - library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal91-1110263
- Document Outline - House Subcommittee Action - House Committee Action
- A bill to roll back some of the insurance industry's exemptions from federal antitrust laws advanced through the House Judiciary Committee too late in the session to be considered on the House floor. A companion measure was introduced in the Senate.
- Insurers had been exempt for 46 years under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, but critics led by Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas said the industry did not deserve special legal protection.
  - Brooks advanced his assault on the insurance industry Nov. 19 when the Judiciary Committee he chaired voted 19–14 to report HR 9, which would end many longstanding insurance industry exemptions from antitrust laws under the 1945 law.

1991 0227, 0507, 0509 and 0523 - GOV (House) - Insurance Company Solvency, (CSPAN) Insurance Company Insolvencies, Cardiss Collins (D-IL) --- [BonkNote]
- [PDF-369p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-0509-CSPAN] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- <VIDEO-? - 0227, 0507 and 0523>
- House - Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation - Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness

The Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony on the financial failure of the Executive Life Insurance Company and the financial stability of the insurance industry in the U.S. Insurance executives discussed the failure of the Executive Life Insurance Company and its effect on holders of policies which currently may or may not be financially secure.
- They also proposed methods of detecting and preventing imminent financial failures of insurance companies.
- This hearing followed a previous hearing on May 7 which also examined the failure of the life insurance company.
- In April 1990, Executive Life Insurance Company of California and Executive Life Insurance Company of New York were put into conservatorships by their respective states, making them the largest government seizures in the history of the life insurance industry.
- The financial collapse occurred despite approval from insurance rating firms and an independent accounting firm.

1991 0409 - GOV (Senate) - How Insurance Laws Are Made: The NAIC and State Adoption of NAIC Model Law
- [PDF-379p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-?] ->Not on govinfo.gov
- Senate - Committee on the Judiciary -Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights
1991 - GOV (House) - Restructuring of the Banking Industry, Part 2, Frank Annunzio (D-IL)
- [GooglePlay]
- PART 1 - APRIL 16, 18, 24 and 25, 1991
  - (p7) - ABA - Richard A. Kirk, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, The United Bank of Denver, and President of he American Bankers Association - Let's look at the marketplace realities. I think a fair question today is just who is providing banking services. Who is a bank? Is Prudential Insurance Co. providing banking services? It is the largest life insurance company in the country, but it also owns Prudential-Bache, the 10th largest securities firm, the Prudential Bank and Trust Co., an FDIC- insured bank, Prudential Real Estate, a large real estate brokerage firm with 25,000 sales representatives. Prudential offers FDIC-insured deposits, credit card services, mutual funds, securities underwriting and brokerage, insurance and real estate brokerage and insurance underwriting. The assets of the Prudential total $164 billion. But some say we should not allow financial services holding companies.
  - (p66) - CU - Michelle Meier, Counsel for Government Affairs, Consumers Union - Life insurance people buy maybe once in their life, so this one stop shopping idea I think has been way overpromoted.
  - (p137-138) - Daryl D. Barklow, President-Elect, Community Bankers' Association of Illinois - The administration says the systemic risk is too great to allow a too-big-to-fail bank to fail. I think now is the time to find out.
    - If the Bank Insurance Fund has inherited a risk of foreign deposits, interest rate swaps and other off balance sheet activities, then good common business sense tells us the insurance fund should
      charge a premium relative to the risk
  - (p167-) - NASAA - Philip Feigin, Securities Commissioner, Colorado Division of Securities, On Behalf of the North - American Securities Administrators Association
    - (p168) - There is a real risk of public confusion when uninsured products are offered within the walls of the banking institution.
    - Universal Life
- PART 2 - 0430 and 0502
  - (p23) - Doug BARNARD, Jr (GA) - Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Clarke, too, do you interpret that the sale of insurance is a risky business, where it would
    bring down the safety and soundness of an institution?
    - Alan GREENSPAN. I do not, Mr. Barnard.
    - Mr. CLARKE. We do not believe that to be the case either.
  - (p256) - ACLI - We continue to believe that the public is best served by maintaining the historic separation between banking and other forms of commerce.
  - (p257-258) - ACLI - For these reasons we find it difficult to understand serious consideration how now would be given at this time to bestowing new insurance powers on banks. It is painfully evident that banks and bank regulators are having difficulty handling the current complement of bank powers . It is simply unreasonable to suggest that the solution for the competitive pressures on banks is to give their managers more businesses to oversee.
- House - Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs - Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Supervision, Regulation and Insurance
1991 0430 and 0625 - GOV (House) - Pension Annuity [sic] Protection in Light of the Executive Life Insurance Company Failure
- - Part 1 - [PDF-197-GooglePlay, VIDEO-?] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
  - Part 2 - 0625 - [PDF-113p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-?] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
  - House - Select Committee on Aging Subcommittee on Retirement Income and Employment

1991 0502 - GOV (House) - Oversight Hearing on the Effect of Proposals to Reform Federal Deposit Insurance on Pension Funds, Pat Williams (D-MT)
- [PDF-225p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-?] --> Not on govinfo.gov
- House - Committee on Education and Labor - Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations
  - Executive Life Insurance Company, Pacific Lumber
  - Richard V. Mink, Executive Vice President, ACLİ
  - Congressional Research Service, reports entitled:
    - Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Pass-Through Insurance for Pension Plans... 184
    - The Status of the Executive Life Insurance Company of California and Congressional Policy Concerns... 178
      - If, however, Executive Life of California is not able to honor its GIC obligations and the contracts are not covered by State guaranty funds, then it is possible that the municipal agencies involved in these transactions will have to pay off their bond obligations from their own internal funds or with the assistance of their municipalities or State.
  - GICS - (p5) - Donald Payne (D-NJ) - Life insurance companies have been often guaranteed investment contracts-GICs-as a pension investment, particularly for defined contribution pension plans.
    - Depository institutions enter the same market, however, with the added benefit of Federal Deposit Insurance for the Bank Investment Contracts-BICs-because many factors, like the window provision and the benefit responsiveness provision and make the GICs and the BICs risky to the issuing institution.
  - Whistleblowers - (p9) - George Miller (D-CA) - I think they ran amok. I think maybe my own State was remiss in their regulation. There were warning signs. The industry raised warning signs about this problem. They were rebuffed.
1991 0227, 0507, 0509 and 0523 - GOV (House) - Insurance Company Solvency, (CSPAN) Insurance Company Insolvencies, Cardiss Collins (D-IL) --- [BonkNote]
- [PDF-369p-GooglePlay, <VIDEO-?-0227/0507 and 0523> - 0509-VIDEO-CSPAN] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- 1991 0509
  - Richard Minck (ACLI)
  - Eden Sarfaty (National Org. Life Health Ins. Guaranty-NOLGHA)
  - Donn Sigerson (Policyholder)
  - Thomas Sutton (Pacific Life/ACLI)

1991 0522 - GOV (House) - Insurance Company Regulation, John Dingell (D-MI)
1991 0522 - GOV (House) - Certain Issues Related to the Conservatorship of the Executive Life Insurance Company, CSPAN - Executive Life Insurance Failure
- [PDF-145p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-CSPAN] ->Not on govinfo.gov
- John Garamendi - California - Insurance Commissioner
- Salvatori Curiale - New York - Superintendent Insurance
- Dorgan, Stark
- House - Committee on Ways and Means - Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures

1991 0613 - GOV (House) - Insurance Competitive Competitive Pricing Act of 1991
- [PDF-237p-GooglePlay, No Video] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- House - Committee on the Judiciary - Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial Law
1991 0620 - GOV (Senate) - Retirees at Risk: The Executive Life Bankruptcy
- [PDF-77p-GooglePlay, No Video] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- Senate - Committee on Labor and Human Resources - Subcommittee and Labor

1991 0717 and 0724 - GOV (House) - Life Insurance Solvency Issues, (CSPAN) - Insurance Insolvencies, (NAIC) - The Impact of Junk Bonds, Real Estate and Mortgages on the Life Insurance Industry - Cardiss Collins (D-IL) --- [BonkNote]
- [PDF-217p-GooglePlay, <VIDEO-?-0717> 0724-VIDEO-CSPAN] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- House - Committee on Energy and Commerce - Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness
- 1991 0717
  - 1991 0717 - NAIC Testimony - Terence Lennon, New York Department of Insurance - 17p
  - 1991 0717 - NAIC Testimony- Richard D. Baum, Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner State Of California - 21p
  - 1991 0717 - NAIC Testimony - Thomas H. Borman, Partner, Maslon, Edelman, Borman and Brand, Former Commissioner of Commerce, State of Minnesota - 9p
- 1991 0724
  - Marcia Horton - ACLI / Lincoln National Life Insurance Company - Vice President - Government Relations
  - Bert McKasy -Commissioner- Minnesota
  - Olga Pegelow - Chicago, IL - Policyholder
  - Eden Sarfaty - President - National Org. Life Health Ins. Guaranty (NOLHGA)
  - The committee heard testimony from insurance industry representatives on the reliability state-run insurance guarantee funds, which are intended to repay holders of insurance policies from insurance companies that go bankrupt.
  - Witnesses included two elderly holders of insurance policies who lost money upon the financial failure of the companies with which they held policies.

1991 0725 - GOV (House) - Oversight Hearing on the Effect on Plan Participants of Insurance Company Failures
- [PDF-GooglePlay-link], VIDEO-?]
- House - Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations
1991 0729 - GOV (House) - Regulation of Insurance Companies and the Role of The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Ben Erdreich (D-AL) --- [BonkNote]
- [PDF-286p-GooglePlay], VIDEO-?] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- GAO - 1991 0729 - GAO - Insurance Regulation: Assessment of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Statement of Richard L. Fogel, Assistant Comptroller General General Government Programs, Before the Subcommittee on Policy Research and Insurance Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives - 57p
- ⇒ NAIC - Statement of Mike Weaver, Commissioner, State of Alabama - 8p
- (p10) - Statement of Mike Weaver (Commissioner, State of Alabama) - A very recent example of that would be the Mutual Benefit situation where over $1 billion was withdrawn over a 2-week period of time.
  - There are not many insurance companies nationwide that can withstand that thrust.
  - The public has to have confidence in what is going on out there in all financial institutions, insurance being one of the major ones.
- House - Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs - Subcommittee on Policy Research and Insurance

1991 0731 - GOV (Senate) - NAIC oversight of the Executive Life Insurance Company, Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH)
- [PDF-163p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-?] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- ...on the adequacy and effectiveness of state regulation of the insurance industry in America
- Senate - Committee on the Judiciary - Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights

1991 0926 - GOV (House) - Resolution of Troubled Insurance Companies and the role of State Guaranty Associations
- [PDF-151p-GooglePlay, VIDEO-?] ->Not on govinfo.gov - R
- House - Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs - Subcommittee Policy Research and Insurance

1991 1121 - GOV (House) Credit Availability and Economic Recovery - [VIDEO-CSPAN]
- The House Task Force on Urgent Fiscal Issues held a hearing on U.S. credit shortage.
- Financier Donald Trump and former FDIC Chairman, William Seidman, spoke about the current recession and proposals to spur economic growth and investment.
- Seidman - Junk Bonds, Lawsuit, S&Ls, Den of Thieves (Book)
- Donald Trump - Insurance Companies are in Trouble
- 01:17:00 - Pension Funds, Real Estate, GICs, BICs,
  - Pension funds could alleviate the current Credit Crisis
- George Vallone? - Real Estate is complicated, people don't understand it, and they don't understand what they don't know.
- [Bonk: VIDEO on CSPAN website is 01:29:33, the downloads (mp3 and mp4) are 04:34:12)