미국 연방은행의 보험업 취급에 관한 연구－ 방카슈랑스 제도와 관련하여 －

It is the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945--which provides that federal antitrust laws are inapplicable to the “business of insurance . . . to the extent that such business is regulated by State Law”--that remains the central federal insurance statute and is the linchpin of the contemporary state-centered insurance regime. In each state, insurance regulation is overseen by a state insurance department, which is led by an insurance commissioner. State insurance departments pursue two overarching goals: (1) consumer protection, through a variety of measures such as price-setting, licensing requirements, and product disclosure requirements (often referred to as “market conduct” rules); and (2) maintaining the solvency of insurance companies operating within the state. The most prominent of Dodd-Frank’s insurance-related reforms is that it establishes the FIO, the first federal regulatory agency explicitly tasked with addressing the insurance industry. The FIO’s main function is supervisory--under the Act, it is “to monitor all aspects of the insurance industry, including identifying issues or gaps in the regulation of insurers that could contribute to a systemic crisis. Dodd-Frank maintains the decentralized state-led system as provided by McCarran- Ferguson. As currently constituted, the FIO has deceptively little power. In 1985, the Office of the Comptroller and Currency (OCC) granted national banks the right to sell fixed-rate annuities. In 1990, the right to sell variable-rate annuities was granted. In 1995, the Supreme Court upheld the OCC’s decisions, and ruled that annuities are not insurance products, but investment products. In 1996, the Supreme Court further ruled that nationally chartered banks may sell insurance. In 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act removed the remaining regulatory barriers between banks and insurers, facilitating the further development of bancassurance in the U.S. There are several reasons why banks may find the bancassurance attractive. The first reason is to diversify revenues. By entering insurance and expanding non-interest-income, banks can diversify some of their net interest rate margin risk without sacrificing profitability. The second reason is economies of scope. Banks may be able to sell insurance at a lower cost than the independent, small agencies/ brokerages by targeting its existing, sizable customer base, using their existing employees as an insurance sales force. The third reason is to expand and protect their existing customer base. The “Insurance Activities” handbook of OCC provides information for bankers and national bank examiners on the risks, controls and supervision of national banks’' insurance activities by the OCC. Because of the complexity and importance of the legal requirements associated with insurance activities, this handbook also contains considerable legal guidance.