The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a privately funded think tank in Washington, D.C., recently announced the launch of a new task force to “assess the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act on the regulation of insurance.”

According to its press release, the task force will explore how Dodd-Frank has impacted the current regulatory landscape for insurance and specifically said that, “Prior to the financial crisis, major bipartisan legislation was proposed in both the House and Senate that would create a federal insurance charter and regulator.”

The release also said, "The Obama administration was open to this idea, but it was ultimately not incorporated into Dodd-Frank. Given the unexpectedly prominent role that the Fed and FDIC now play, the time is ripe to revisit this idea.”

In addition to exploring the impact of an Optional Federal Charter (OFC) for insurance, the BPC task force will focus heavily on the global insurance regulatory system and the coordination between the European Union and the United States on the creation of new global capital standards. Additionally, the group plans to take a hard look at specific aspects of the current state regulatory model.

It is likely that the group will issue a white paper or release a set of recommendations on the issues they study, although a timeline is uncertain.

The Big “I” has always strongly supported state regulation of insurance and opposed any federal day-to-day oversight of the market. But in addition to the BPC, some in the industry are now calling for a renewed effort to create an OFC.

Opposing an OFC and educating Congress on the detrimental impact it could have on the industry and consumers will be a topic for discussion at the upcoming Big “I” Legislative Conference, to take place April 22-24 in Washington, D.C.

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