MetLife CEO Steve Kandarian warns of dire consequences if large insurance companies like his are designated systemically important and deserving of special oversight. Such a move “could disrupt an entire industry just as the economy is regaining its footing,” Kandarian said at a dinner in Washington recently, Danielle Douglas reports in the Washington Post (3/7/13).

If insurance companies had to set aside more capital, “consumers could find lack of supply, higher prices, fewer features on products across the industry,” Kandarian said. His position enjoys some support among experts who assert that insurance companies, by and large, are on a sounder footing than other financial firms.

But the article goes on to quote AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley as arguing that many insurers now offer financial products that put them in direct competition with investment banks. “When you have people selling financial products that are directly linked to the larger financial sector and, therefore, pose systemic risk . . . they have to be regulated on an even playing field,” Stanley said.