The insurance industry can recover from a terrorist attack, although a large insurer may be disrupted, according to a recent GAO study of insurers, regulators and the NAIC. Impairment of a large insurer would not likely spread due to the limited interdependency between insurers and the absence of a central clearing function. The insurance industry differs from the securities industry in this way. Although insurers increasingly outsource certain business functions, regulators have not regularly audited such service functions, according to the GAO report.
GAO Report 06-85, November 18, 2005 (37 pages) GAO: Summary
Posted by dougsimpson at January 9, 2006 01:25 PM