Crisis in Confidence

  • Terri Vaughan, NAIC CEO/ Iowa
    • (p25) - One of my colleagues likes to say the greatest risk we have right now is a crisis of confidence.  --  It is that people are scared.  -- We know our policyholders are scared.
  • Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
    • We cannot address or we certainly cannot legislate the confidence in the market.
    • We are going to do a lot of cheerleading to do that.

2009 0305 - GOV (House) - Perspectives on Systemic Risk - [PDF-254p

  • 585 The consensus among industry analysts is that once confidence is lost in an insurance company like AIG, policyholders will pull their policies, insurance agents will dissuade clients from purchasing insurance policies from the company, and that, in effect, all the insurance companies would have become ‘‘run-off’’ businesses.

--  Panel staff conversations with industry analysts.

2010 0610 - COP - Report - The AIG Rescue, Its Impact on Markets, and the Government’s Exit Strategy - 337p

  • The disaster we fear is the looming crisis of confidence, of lost credibility, of spreading fear among the public and, ultimately, of a "run on the bank” as policyholders pull their money out of the insurance industry. (p160)

--   Martin D. Weiss, President, Weiss Research

[PDF-369p-GooglePlay

  • Perhaps the greatest threat to the insurance industry is one of an erosion of public confidence stemming from a perceived inability of regulators, guaranty funds, and the industry itself to fully protect policyholders...

-- Daniel J. Kunesh

1991 - SOA - Solvency Issues and the Investment Actuary, Society of Actuaries - 28p

  • For life insurers, the risk of a bank-like “run” resulting from loss of consumer confidence is virtually non-existent.

2016 0831 - ACLI - Life Insurers Do Not Pose a Systemic Risk to the Nation’s Economy, By Dirk Kempthorne - (President and Chief Executive Officer of the ACLI - [link]

  • We are seeing a real crisis in confidence:
    • That, in my mind, is probably the worst thing that could happen.   
    • There is not a company in the country that can stand runs that Commissioner Weaver was talking about, where people ask for $1 billion in policy loans and surrenders in a 2-week period.  (p13)

---  William McCartney, William, Director of Insurance, State of Nebraska and Vice President, National Association of Insurance Commissioners <NAIC>

1991 0729 - GOV (House) - Regulation of Insurance Companies and the Role of The National Association of Insurance Commissioners - [PDF-286p