Robert Klein Testifies Before Senate Banking Committee on Insurance Regulation

July 19, 2006 (Atlanta, GA)  - Robert W. Klein, associate professor and director of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, testified on needed insurance regulatory reforms before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Tuesday, July 18th. Klein was one of two academics speaking before the Committee.

The purpose of the hearing was to obtain expert opinion to help the committee identify and discuss problems with current regulatory institutions and policies. In his testimony, Klein expressed his preference for an approach in which the  federal government would set standards for the states and they would then retain responsibility for enforcing insurance regulations. However, he told the Committee that if that approach is unworkable then it is his opinion that some form of optional federal charter approach may be the next best solution.

Klein has testified before Congress on other issues such as catastrophe risk and insurance and state market conduct regulation. Klein has conducted research and written extensively on various topics on insurance and insurance regulation. .Prior to joining Georgia State in 1996, he served as director of research and chief economist for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.  He also has served as staff economist for the insurance department and state legislature in Michigan and has served on the board of directors for the American Risk and Insurance Association.  He currently serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Insurance Regulation and Risk Management and Insurance Review.

The department of risk management and insurance (RMI) is  the largest and most prominent center of risk management education and research in the world offering undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees in three distinct majors. The program has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top three programs in the nation for eight consecutive years.

The J. Mack Robinson College of Business is one of the top-ranked business schools in the nation. The College's Flex (part-time) MBA program has been listed in the top ten by U.S. News for the past eleven years and its undergraduate business program is ranked among the top 50 in the nation. In addition, the College's Executive MBA program is listed among the world's best by The Financial Times. Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business has an enrollment of approximately 7,000 students and is located in downtown Atlanta.

For more information, contact:
Tammy Demel
Office of External Affairs
Robinson College of Business
404/413-7078
404/702-9743 (cell)