Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 2270, the “Insurance Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014,” by unanimous consent. The Senate passed identical legislation earlier this year by unanimous consent, which means this bipartisan bill now heads to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.

Dodd-Frank gave the Federal Reserve the authority to regulate non-bank institutions that own savings and loans or are designated as systematically important financial institutions (SIFIs). But the bill did not go far enough in allowing the Federal Reserve to tailor their standards for these different markets.

The Big “I” has long supported this technical fix clarifying that insurance companies subject to Federal Reserve oversight are not forced to comply with bank-centric capital standards. This legislation recognizes the inherent differences between banking and insurance and further reinforces that they require distinct regulatory standards. 

Jen McPhillips is Big “I” senior director of federal government affairs.