Abramovsky, Aviva; Mason, Ian; Tischner, Robert; Bessman, Stefan --- "Enforcement: A Survey of Three Approaches to Insurance Regulatory Enforcement: The USA, the UK and Sweden" [2012] ELECD 170; in Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin (eds), "Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation

Editor(s): Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849807883

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Enforcement: A Survey of Three Approaches to Insurance Regulatory Enforcement: The USA, the UK and Sweden

Author(s): Abramovsky, Aviva; Mason, Ian; Tischner, Robert; Bessman, Stefan

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

16 Enforcement: a survey of three approaches to
insurance regulatory enforcement: the USA,
the UK and Sweden
Aviva Abramovsky, Ian Mason, Robert Tischner and Stefan
Bessman


1. INTRODUCTION
The concept of regulation of an industry cannot exist without an examination of how
such regulatory systems are enforced. No industry is without its bad actors or inappropri-
ate risk takers and a lack of enforcement action does not always reflect a healthy system.
Faith in any regulatory system requires not only the existence of a proper regulatory
scheme, but also the robust enforcement of those schemes and the regulated industry's
knowledge and acceptance that proper enforcement will occur.
Enforcement is the consequence of improper behavior, but in insurance, as with other
financial services industries, such enforcement takes two main forms. First, each national
system has a series of enforcement mechanisms in place to supervise and review compli-
ance with regulations prior to the risk necessarily causing any harm other than its
deviation from the regulatory standards. Such standards exist, of course, for specific
policy and prudential reasons and much regulatory effort is focused on ensuring compli-
ance with the enacted regulations. Enforcement in this context may come in a number of
different forms and may be informal discussions with insurers to request that they
improve their compliance with certain rules. The second form of enforcement, the
instigation of suit or legal proceeding (including disciplinary action by the regulator
under its own rules, proceedings in the civil/criminal courts by regulators ...