R Street urges Senate to confirm FSOC nominee
WASHINGTON (Jan. 24, 2018) – The R Street Institute today urged the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the full U.S. Senate to approve President Donald Trump’s nomination of Thomas Workman to serve as the independent member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council with insurance expertise.
Workman, who testified before the committee Jan. 23 along with White House nominees to the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has deep experience in insurance and understands the crucial role that both life and property and casualty insurance markets play in the global financial services industry, R Street Director of Finance, Insurance and Trade Policy R.J. Lehmann said.
“In his testimony, Workman made clear his sensitivity to the ways in which insurance differs from banking and securities and that tools used to measure systemic risk in one aren’t always appropriate in another,” Lehmann said. “We were particularly heartened by his openness to rethink FSOC’s designation process to focus more on the nature of a firm’s activities, rather than a one-size-fits-all accounting of its assets.”
The independent FSOC member with insurance expertise was created by the Dodd-Frank Act. It is the only voting position on FSOC specifically filled by a member with knowledge of insurance. Workman served for 17 years as president and CEO of the Life Insurance Council of New York. Previously, he was an attorney for Bricker and Eckler in Columbus, Ohio, and served on the board of Ohio Farmers Insurance Co.