The Federal Reserve today announced a voluntary survey into thepotential impact of capital rules for insurance companies that itregulates.

The Federal Reserve is seeking comments from the industry as itstudies how to tailor capital and liquidity standards for insurancecompanies, who argue that they should not have to meet the samestandards as banks.

Information collected through the study “would allow for furtherexploration of areas of concern raised by commenters during theproposal stage of the revised regulatory capital frameworkrulemaking,” the Fed said in a statement.

In Dodd-Frank, the sweeping regulatory overhaul enacted inresponse to the 2008 credit crisis, a measure grouped insurers andother non-bank companies with financial firms that would facecapital and liquidity standards to be imposed by the Fed.

The Fed has interpreted that provision, named after MaineRepublican Senator Susan Collins, to instruct them to write similarrules for insurers as banks.

“This is a welcome step in the right direction,” said ChrisStern, vice president for policy communications at MetLife Inc.,the largest U.S. life insurer. “Capital rules written for banks area bad fit for life insurers. They don't measure risk properly andmake financial protection needlessly expensive. Done properly, thisstudy could go a long way toward helping the Federal Reserveunderstand the negative consequences of imposing bank-centric ruleson life insurance companies and consumers.”

Fed Chair Janet Yellen, her predecessor Ben Bernanke, andGovernor Daniel Tarullo, have all said they support congressionalaction to change this provision.

So far, lawmakers have not been able to agree.

The Senate has passed a bill by Senator Sherrod Brown, an OhioDemocrat, that would give the Fed flexibility in writing capitalstandards for insurers.

The House in September passed a similar bill while combining itwith other Dodd-Frank changes. The two measures would need to bereconciled before being sent to the president. The insurers haveasked for a clean capital fix bill.

In the study, the Fed asked for comments by the end of theyear.

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