Regulators to discuss life after TRIA.

Three months after President Bush signed legislation allowing a two-year extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, regulators and key members of the U.S. Treasury Department are setting the groundwork for what comes next.

Looking ahead to the Act's expiration on Dec. 31, 2007, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners will kick off discussion at a future meeting set to take place in New York. The Treasury is soliciting comments regarding the long-term status of terrorism risk insurance.

"We need to avoid what happened last time," New York state Insurance Superintendent Howard Mills said, adding that during the last go-round it was perceived that insurers and regulators waited until the 11th hour to push for an extension. This time, "we need to ensure that the dialogue is proactive so that we do not face a situation where we approach the sunset of TRIA and we have no solutions," he said.

Mills, speaking at a March 4 session of the NAIC's Spring National Meeting in Orlando, Fla., said that in giving input to the Treasury-led President's Working Group on Financial Markets, the NAIC plays a key role in shaping the future of availability and affordability of terrorism risk insurance. The federal working group's findings are to be submitted to Congress no later than Sept. 30.

At the March 4 meeting of the NAIC's Terrorism Insurance Implementation Working Group, which Mills chairs, Paul C. Donohue, director of state-federal affairs for the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, urged regulators to allow NCOIL to join them in finding a long-term solution.