seitz: thank you, senator. we have articulated those same points in our letter to chairman brown a few months ago, and it is an issue we are focused on, and we appreciate the changing investment portfolio of those companies, as well as across the broader life insurance -- sen. warren: in other words there is more risk? mr. seitz: it is an area of increased focus for our office. sen. warren: exposing american'' retirement savings to more risk is exactly how private equity makes its money. riskier and more complex investments means that private equity-backed insurers can jack up their returns and short-term profits. but the pensions are more vulnerable to being wiped out by a market downturn, which endangers the insurance companies' insolvency. this is not hard. this is just how the pieces work. for example, 1/5 of the portfolio is invested in risky asset-backed securities and leveraged loans made to companies that are already highly indebted. and even worse, many of the scenes risky investments are created or ma

let me start with you, director seitz. concern has been expressed by you and some of my colleagues about private equity firms, however that term is defined, having a short term horizon for their investments in insurers and thus may be willing to invest in riskier activities. can you tell me if there are ensures that have been purchased by private equity that have been sold or are up for sale, indicating a quick turnaround? >> thank you, senator. it is an issue that we are closely monitoring, particularly over the last, as commissioner birrane mentioned, we've seen an increase in activity over the last ovaries in this area. particularly for certain blocks of business, it's an area that we're continuing to monitor. >> the question was, though, are there examples of where insurance companies purchased by private equity are than in a short fashion sold? >> i don't want to speak to any specific transactions but i think, generally, what we've seen is they are not making those types of movements you described. >> thank you. i do

seitz: thank you, senator. we have articulated those same points in our letter to chairman brown a few months ago, and it is an issue we are focused on, and we appreciate the changing investment portfolio of those companies, as well as across the broader life insurance -- sen. warren: in other words there is more risk? mr. seitz: it is an area of increased focus for our office. sen. warren: exposing american'' retirement savings to more risk is exactly how private equity makes its money. riskier and more complex investments means that private equity-backed insurers can jack up their returns and short-term profits. but the pensions are more vulnerable to being wiped out by a market downturn, which endangers the insurance companies' insolvency. this is not hard. this is just how the pieces work. for example, 1/5 of the portfolio is invested in risky asset-backed securities and leveraged loans made to companies that are already highly indebted. and even worse, many of the scenes risky investments are created or ma

doctor steven seitz.e the assumption but i am assuming that you are in agreement with my statement that we really do want to maintain the current aggregated proposal that we use in the united states today. >> thank you for your question on this issue. it is one that is critically important for the u.s. insurance sector. and it's one that our team has been working on for the last several years in court coordination with the naic, the states and the federal reserve. we believe that we should continue to be part of this conversation, the national, international community is moving ahead, the development of the insurance capital standard and we need to be at the table to improve that methodology so that it is more compatible with our u.s. system. as we discussed earlier, ics does not appropriately reflect certain aspects of our regime, particularly for those long duration projects which are critical for millions of americans out of retirement and i know that it will be a priority issue for us over the coming