I was reading a publication of the Federal Insurance Office (a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury), and was shocked to learn that half of all U.S. bank-held assets belong to insurance companies. As of the end of 2012, the Life/Health and Property/Casualty insurance industries held $7.3 trillion in total assets. The total amount of assets held by FDIC-insured institutions in 2012 was $14.5 trillion. Can you believe insurance companies recently claimed they were not “systemically important” in the United States…?

For more on the Federal Insurance Office’s recommendations for improving the U.S. system of insurance regulation, see “How to Modernize and Improve the System of Insurance Regulation in the United States,” December 2013.

For more on the regulation of “Systemically Important” insurance companies, see “The Nine Insurers That Pose a Threat to the Global Economy.”