Eric Dinallo Resigns
On May 28, Eric Dinallo, New York’s high-profile Superintendent of Insurance, resigned effective July 3.
Dinallo presided over the Department’s response to the AIG catastrophe and advocated far more regulation of the industry than previously seen. Dinallo was also instrumental in the rescue of the municipal bond business in New York, approving segregating it from mortgage insurers, now being attacked in court.
Felix Salmon has an interesting take on what this means for the future of insurance regulation:
More interestingly, Dinallo’s resignation temporarily leaves the country without a strong insurance regulator — and that, in turn, should make it much easier for Tim Geithner to push through plans to rationalize the nightmare that is insurance regulation, and bring America’s insurers under one federal regulatory umbrella.
Many expect Dinallo to run for NY Attorney General, the post held by his former boss Elliot Spitzer, and now held by Andrew Cuomo. Per the Wall Street Journal:
"He'd like to run for attorney general," New York Democrat political strategist George Arzt said of Mr. Dinallo. "I think he's been taking soundings." Leaving the insurance-commissioner post, Mr. Arzt said, would give Mr. Dinallo more latitude to "speak out about the issues."
For the moment, though, he’ll be at NYU.
