Insurance expert tapped for financial crisis panel

By Peter Schroeder - 06/27/11 11:04 AM ET

President Obama has nominated an insurance expert to further fill out the new Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).

The White House announced Friday that the president intends to nominate Roy Woodall, a former state insurance commissioner and Treasury Department official, to serve as an insurance expert on the council.

President Obama has taken some heat for failing to fill the seats reserved for insurance experts on the FSOC. Lawmakers had asked the president for months to fill the seat now reserved for Woodall, as it was the only voting spot reserved for an insurance perspective.

If confirmed by the Senate, Woodall would join top regulators like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as voting members on the panel. He would also fill one of two remaining open seats, with the latter still waiting for an eventual director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The oversight council, created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, gathers top regulators from across the government and is charged with overseeing broad issues that could affect the financial system. In particular, the FSOC is charged with designating firms as "systemically significant," which would carry with it additional regulatory requirements as regulators attempt to stave off another financial crisis.

Woodall formerly served as the commissioner of insurance for Kentucky, and recently retired from Treasury, where he served as a senior insurance policy analyst.

He also has some experience on Capitol Hill as an insurance consultant for the Congressional Research Service.

The insurance industry hailed Woodall's selection Monday. The American Insurance Association called him a "dedicated public servant."

"If confirmed, Mr. Woodall will fill a critical position that is currently vacant leaving the insurance industry without a voting member of the FSOC," the group said. "AIA supports Mr. Woodall’s nomination and urges the Senate to move the confirmation process forward quickly."

It is unclear how quickly Woodall might be confirmed by the Senate. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, does not yet have a position on Woodall's nomination and will be reviewing his qualifications, his spokesman said.