Treasury, Office of US Trade Representative agree to US – EU covered insurance agreement

The U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced last week that they will sign the “covered agreement” between the United States and European Union on Prudential Measures Regarding Insurance and Reinsurance.

The covered agreement, created by the Dodd-Frank Act, sets mutual acknowledgement of prudential supervision in the E.U. and United States. The Trump Administration is expected to sign the agreement in the coming weeks.

The Treasury Department said this agreement will make U.S. companies more competitive in domestic and foreign markets.  Further, it employs the United States’ state-based system of insurance regulation.

American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) supports the agreement.

“The covered agreement removes regulatory uncertainty for insurers and reinsurers and establishes the terms upon which companies operating in both the United States and the European Union can do business in these jurisdictions,” Dirk Kempthorne, ACLI’s president and CEO said. “It is also consistent with the administration’s policy to ‘enable American companies to be competitive with foreign firms in domestic and foreign markets, advance American interests in international financial negotiations and meetings, [and] make regulation efficient, effective and appropriately tailored.”

Kempthorne said ACLI members, and consumers, will benefit from the certainty provided by the covered agreement.

“Through retirement and insurance products provided by life insurance companies, 75 million American families are better able to plan, save and guarantee their savings for a secure retirement,” Kempthorne said.