Leading US insurers don’t believe the asbestos bill being prepared in the US Senate will even make it to the debating stage, says Sunrise Exchange News reporter Monique Hodgetts. Reporting from the 39th annual seminar of the International Insurance Society in New York today, she says AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberg told the session the controversial bill is “doomed to die”.

The bill plans to build a fund to pay for asbestosis victims, using a measurement system devised by the American Medical Association. “We do need reform for asbestos,” Mr Greenberg told the conference. “But not that bill.”

He also criticised moves to tighten corporate governance, saying it has made managing companies much more difficult. “Corporate governance takes away the job of entertaining risk,” he said. “You can’t legislate crime – if you could you would. But corporate governance is having a negative effect on business.”

He said financial ratings will be the most important issue facing the US insurance industry in a year’s time. “Almost all of the industry has been downgraded, but companies need good ratings for their credibility.”

“The industry has been confronted with serious issues, and unless the market alters considerably, companies will continue to be downgraded.”

Terrorism and global and financial risks are just some of the issues that have already been discussed by senior executives from around the world at this year’s meeting. More than 600 executives from 40 nations are attending.