US insurance industry oversight increase sought by Treasury

US life insurance policy payout ruling

It is looking for a larger role in being able to regulate insurers, particularly in specific sectors. The United States Treasury has now made a call to be able to receive a broader role in overseeing the US insurance industry on a federal level, especially when it comes to areas such as mortgage coverage, the use of personal data for calculating premiums, the collection of the information in the first place, and the employment of secretive “captives” entities by insurers in order to try to keep risks off the books.…

Read More

Tax benefit causes AIG profits to skyrocket

American International Group Inc. (AIG) has announced a fourth quarter 2011 profit of $19.8 billion following a large tax benefit that it received after it submitted its predictions regarding its ability to maintain the generation of profits over the upcoming years. The bailed-out insurance company received tax benefits worth $17.7 billion within the last three months of last year. This was a sum that was significantly greater than the $1.6 billion operating income that it received from its insurance businesses and other branches throughout that same time. Equally, though, the…

Read More

AIG makes a $2.15 billion dent in its bailout repayments

American International Group Inc. (AIG) has made a payment of $2.15 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department as a partial repayment of the total $182 billion it was provided through the 2008 financial crisis bailout package. The repayment funds were drawn from the proceeds that the company made from the company’s sale of its Taiwan subsidiary called Nan Shan Life Insurance Company Shan to Ruen Chen Investment Holding Co. Nan Shan has been available for sale from AIG since the middle of 2009, when the government of Taiwan halted its…

Read More

S&P’s downgrade could impact the nation’s insurance industry

Recently, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a major financial research and analysis company based in the U.S., downgraded the U.S. government debt. The firm now classifies the nation’s finances as having a “negative” outlook. S&P’s actions have spurred the nation’s insurance and finance companies to take another look at their practices and portfolios, keen to spot any compliance violations spawned from the downgrade. The search for such violations has been slow going so far, as the U.S.’ long-term ratings have never before been downgraded. The downgrade has left many major insurance…

Read More

S&P claims top insurance companies could lose leading ratings

Standard & Poor’s recently announced that the top insurers in the country may lose their leading credit ratings as a result of the debates that have raised the federal debt ceiling. Affected insurance companies could include New York Life Insurance and the Texas-based USAA, as well as the Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., and Knights of Columbus.  Standard & Poor’s stated that each of these insurers risk losing their AAA credit ratings. The S&P statement said that the cause is the “significant holdings”…

Read More