US Feds moving to identify climate-related regulatory gaps in oversight regime

US federal insurance overseers will identify insurance sector climate risks and regulatory gaps in a report due by year-end, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (pictured) said in opening remarks to a local and regional government conference on climate transition.

The Treasury's Federal Insurance Office (FIO), chiefly a policy advisory body, "is looking at climate-related risk in the insurance sector, trying to answer questions like whether climate-related weather events have impacted the availability of insurance coverage, especially in high-risk areas and for traditionally underserved communities," Yellen said.

The FIO will additionally publish a report by year-end "on climate-related insurance supervision, identifying potential gaps in regulatory practices".

The conference was also set to focus on municipal funding markets and the climate reporting municipalities and state governments can do to best attract infrastructure funding.

The US does not regulate insurance directly from the federal level, leaving oversight to each of the states. The FIO was created after the financial crisis as an advisory body on insurance that works closely with the NAIC, an association of state regulatory bodies seeking to harmonize regulation.

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