Earlier this week, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) released its “Annual Report on the Insurance Industry” as required by Dodd-Frank. The report begins with an overview of the industry’s financial performance and then breaks down that analysis by sector, including both property-casualty and life-health performance trends. According to the financial review, “bottom line numbers were encouraging and record net income levels were achieved in 2013 for both the P/C and L/H sectors.”

The report also features an analysis of consumer protection and access to insurance, as well as sections covering a range of developments at the state, federal and international levels. These sections highlight progress made throughout the year on issues addressed in both Dodd-Frank and in the modernization report the FIO released last year.

The consumer protection section of the report reiterates that Dodd-Frank authorized the FIO to monitor the accessibility and affordability of insurance for traditionally underserved communities. As part of that review, the FIO has decided to focus on personal auto insurance and is in the process of reviewing data and comments it has collected from the industry for that study.

In this section, the FIO also reiterates its support for H.R. 4669, the “Servicemember Insurance Relief Act of 2014,” introduced by Rep. Ed Royce (R-California), saying it will continue to work with “interested parties on creating accommodating approaches for servicemembers who have personal auto policies and are required to move across state lines.” While the Big “I” supports the notion that servicemembers should be able to move their auto policies across states lines with ease, H.R. 4669 does not solve that proposed problem and only further complicates the current process needlessly empowering the FIO and taking authority away from state insurance commissioners. The Big “I” opposes the bill by Rep. Royce, but is willing to work with Congress on state-based solutions to address this issue if true problems currently exist.

The Annual Report also addresses U.S. regulatory developments and specifically highlights reciprocal and uniform agent licensing as an issue that should be addressed by Congress. It notes that the NARAB II legislation is the most efficient and effective means for agents to achieve licensing reciprocity and urges Congress to adopt the bill. In this section, the report also cautions against serious and negative impacts to the economy without the reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Other domestic regulatory developments include comments on cyber risk insurance, as well as a summary of the NFIP.

The final section of the Annual Report highlights international regulatory developments and describes the various international initiatives the U.S. is involved in to “improve the efficacy and consistency” of insurance supervisory standards globally. Of particular note is the continued work by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors to develop international capital standards to apply to Internationally Active Insurance Groups and create a “comprehensive, group-wide supervisory and regulatory framework” (“Common Framework”) that will apply to insurers that conduct business internationally.

Jen McPhillips is Big “I” senior director of federal government affairs.