Yellen Confirms Insurance SIFI Rules Will Differ From Banking Rules

Janet Yellen’s first Congressional testimony as Federal Reserve Chairperson was highly anticipated as a gauge on how recent soft US economic data might affect tapering (looks like it won’t), but Yellen also reiterated her stance that insurance companies, even the large systematically important financial institutions (SIFI) like American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) and Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) are distinct from banks and new rules will be tailored for them instead of trying to force all SIFIs to adhere to the same set of standards. This is positive news: Sterne Agee “Yet another positive comment that reinforces our expectation that the rules, once…