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91_HJ0025
LRB9106843KBkb
1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, PA 90-41 includes necessary consumer and fair
3 market protections, such as requiring the separation of
4 lending and insurance transactions; prohibitions against
5 coercive practices and anti-tying; requiring separate lending
6 and insurance areas; requirements for full written
7 disclosures to customers; and inclusion of prohibitions
8 against sharing confidential information; and
9 WHEREAS, HB 586 was supported by the Illinois Bankers
10 Association, the Community Bankers Association of Illinois,
11 the Professional Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois,
12 the Illinois Life Underwriters Association, the Illinois
13 League of Financial Institutions, the Illinois Credit Union
14 System, the Illinois Insurance Association and the Illinois
15 Life Insurance Council; and
16 WHEREAS, The Comptroller of the Currency is an appointed,
17 federal bureaucrat who has a track record of promulgating
18 regulations that serve to expand bank insurance powers; these
19 new insurance activities, deemed banking issues by the
20 Comptroller, often conflict with established state laws; and
21 WHEREAS, On January 13, 1997, the Office of the
22 Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a request for
23 comments on Rhode Island's Financial Institution Insurance
24 Sales Act to assist in the determination as to whether
25 Section 92 of the Federal Bank Act provided the Comptroller
26 of the Currency sufficient authority to preempt Rhode
27 Island's banks-in-insurance statute; and
28 WHEREAS, The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 relegates
29 authority to the individual states for regulation of the
30 insurance activities of all entities; and
31 WHEREAS, The preemption of state insurance laws by an
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1 unelected federal bureaucrat is in direct conflict with the
2 fifty-four year tradition of state regulation of insurance
3 under McCarran-Ferguson and thereby raises vitally important
4 questions of states' rights and the primacy of duly-elected
5 representatives to enact laws governing insurance activities
6 within their state borders; and
7 WHEREAS, The National Association of Insurance
8 Commissioners (NAIC); the National Conference of State
9 Legislators (NCSL); and the National Conference of Insurance
10 Legislators (NCOIL) all submitted letters strongly opposing
11 the Comptroller of the Currency's desire to preempt state
12 insurance law; and
13 WHEREAS, In past court disputes between federal banking
14 and state insurance regulators, federal courts have granted
15 "unequal deference" to federal regulators, thereby rendering
16 decisions based not on the merits of the case, but on
17 deference to the federal regulator; therefore, be it
18 RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF
19 ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, That we memorialize
20 the Congress of the United States to enact legislation to
21 affirm the authority of of the states to regulate insurance
22 matters, including preventing the Office of the Comptroller
23 of the Currency from preempting state laws regulating the
24 sale of insurance through lending institutions and ending the
25 practice of federal regulators being able to be granted
26 "unequal deference" in litigation between state and federal
27 regulations on insurance matters; and be it further
28 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be delivered to
29 the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the
30 United States House of Representatives, and the members of
31 the Illinois Congressional Delegation.