Tag: IFIGS

Just prior to the NAIC meeting in Austin, TX was the annual conference of the International Forum of Insurance Guarantee Schemes (IFIGS) in Washington D.C. NOLHGA served as co-hosts. This was my final duty as 2019 chairman of IFIGS. 17 of the 24 IFIGS members attended and we had about 60 people altogether at the conference on December 4. Special thanks to NCIGF board members Keith Bell, Joyce Mellinger, Smitty Harrison and Brad Roeber for their attendance and support.

We covered a number of topics that are important to those who track international resolution matters. The benefit to us of IFIGS participation is a platform to keep our tested public policies and structure in front of the international standard-setters, including our own regulators who participate. This is another example of how NCIGF is expected to carry the water as subject matter experts on insurance liquidation public policies. Some takeaways for your consideration:

• Tom Sullivan from the Federal Reserve (and member of Team USA) and David Wilson from the CA Liquidation office also participated in panel discussions. Securing their participation was strategically significant to us as it further builds the credibility of the U.S. guaranty fund system as opinion leaders and solidifies our strategic objective to be the definitive leader on matters concerning insurance liquidation and policyholder protection.
• At the business meeting on December 5, the IFIGS membership approved every initiative presented as part of the strategic plan I put forward at the start of the year.
• My goal as IFIGS chair was to assure a more stable, dependable and durable organization that would have credibility with supervisors around the world. Having that available will help NCIGF and NOLHGA represent our interests before international standard-setters. Structurally, that mission is well on its way to accomplishment and will be spurred further by the dynamic leader of the Canadian P/C guaranty fund we recruited to succeed me as chair.
• The next step is to achieve financial continuity to carry IFIGS into the future.

I appreciate the support of the board for me to serve as chair in 2019 and am glad to pass on those duties. It was a worthwhile exercise and should be helpful in 2020, which is expected to be an active year internationally:

• The IAIS Resolution Working Group (ReWG) is preparing to take up an advisory paper on insurance company resolution. We’ve been in close contact with FIO’s Alex Hart who chairs the group and I expect we will have excellent input.
• Perhaps the most critical interaction at the IFIGS meeting was with Dimitris Zaferis, lead staff person for EIOPA. His organization is in the process of establishing “harmonisation” standards for resolution schemes in Europe (some of which have yet to be created). It’s important that major aspects of U.S. public policy (post-funding, primacy of policyholder protection, for example) be recognized as viable policies by EIOPA and the other international regulatory standard setters. Working both as the U.S. and as part of IFIGS, we should be well-positioned to effectively make our case.

  

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, January 14, 2019 – Roger H. Schmelzer, president of the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds (NCIGF), has been selected to serve as chairman of the International Forum of Insurance Guarantee Schemes (IFIGS). 

Schmelzer, along with Peter Gallanis, president of the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA), NCIGF’s life and health counterpart, together have represented the United States as members of IFIGS since 2012.

Schmelzer, who has led the NCIGF since 2006, will be joined on the IFIGS Management and Support Committees by representatives from Canada, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Greece, Korea, Kenya, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom.  He has served as IFIGS secretary for the past year.

“Insurance customers, industry and the economy are best-served when the insurance promise is secured,” said Schmelzer upon his election. “I’m enthusiastic about working with our global partners to further advance that objective.”

IFIGS facilitates and promotes international cooperation between insurance guarantee schemes and other stakeholder organizations with an interest in policyholder protection. The IFIGS is made up of 25 full and associate members, 22 of which are Insurance Guarantee Schemes (IGS) from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. There are more than 30 IGS worldwide.

IGS protect policyholders of insurance companies that fail. Many IGS provide expertise in stabilization or restructuring resolutions, and all IGS can provide expertise and some form of insurance protection and/or financial support to assist in the liquidation of an insolvent insurer.

An international platform will elevate the U.S. guaranty system’s value to domestic solvency regulators, according to Schmelzer. “This is timely because the NAIC is undertaking its own initiatives that could affect the U.S. system,” he said.  “The broader our expertise, the more impactful we can be on behalf of the state guaranty funds, the carriers who belong to the state associations and most importantly to individual policyholders and claimants.”

Schmelzer noted the efforts of the NCIGF and NOLHGA as part of IFIGS have already made a difference, citing recent changes to international regulatory drafts which underscore the primacy of policyholder protection, the importance of pre-insolvency cooperation, collaboration between the guaranty system and regulators as well as clearing up any misconceptions that a guaranty association could spread financial risk.

NCIGF and NOLHGA will host the IFIGS annual conference in late 2019.