Mark Boozell, former Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance and author of a PIA Insurance Foundation white paper on the future of insurance regulation, was a panelist at a roundtable sponsored by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL). Boozell spoke November 20 during the NCOIL roundtable, The Future of Financial Regulation: Will Consumers Be Protected? Also participating on the panel: Sarah Edelman, State and Local Program Coordinator, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch; John Nolan, Senior Legislative Assistant, Office of U.S. Representative Keith Ellison; and David Snyder, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, American Insurance Association.

Boozell began by saying that the most important goal of regulation is to protect consumers, not make it easier for regulated entities to operate.  Boozell said that consumers will be protected despite what Congress decides because state legislators and regulators will not have it any other way.  “Consumers will be protected despite new federal regulation, not as a result of the new federal bureaucracies,” Boozell said.

December 9, 2009