Declarations

Extended Stay

“I’ve talked to the board and said that if I stay healthy — and I’m still hopeful — I would like to stay on for another year.”

—AIG CEO Robert Benmosche on his plan to extend his stay at the company. Benmosche told The Wall Street Journal that he is in for the long haul. The former MetLife CEO, who had also been battling cancer, had originally planned to step down and retire sometime in 2012.

Federal Regulations?

“Currently there is very little uniformity of regulation of insurance as is evidenced by the state-by-state patchwork of laws related to new product approval, self-insurer requirements, collateral requirements, solvency requirements, state licensing requirements and reinsurance requirements.”

—Scott Clark, who served as president of The Risk and Insurance Management Society in 2011, in his letter last month to the U.S. Federal Insurance Office on why he favors more federal regulations. Last year, FIO sought public comments for its planned report on how to improve the regulatory system.

Lesson From Irene

“If nothing else good comes out of Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, I hope it will reemphasize to people how important flood insurance can be.”

—Tim Dodge, director of research at Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, on the importance of flood insurance. Last year’s hurricane season was an unusually costly one for New York State residents. It’s expected to take several more months for affected areas to fully recover.

Cyber Risk

“While insurers are benefiting from the digitization of their businesses, they also face new risks such as a potential tarnished reputation, fraud, intellectual property theft, business disruption and increased regulatory scrutiny.”

—Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, vice president and analyst at Gartner, on the dangers of cyber risks. The cyber risk insurance business is worth around $750 million in terms of premiums placed. And it’s poised to get bigger in 2012.

Topics Cyber Legislation