Life insurer MetLife Inc. said that it intends to sue the U.S. today over a ruling that it poses significant risks to the financial system and warrants tougher federal oversight, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The nation’s largest life insurer by assets would become the first to challenge the “systemically important” designation from the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of regulators chaired by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew that determines which financial firms deserve more scrutiny as a way of averting another widespread crisis. Three other nonbank financial firms received the same label, but American International Group Inc., General Electric Co.’s finance arm and Prudential Financial Inc. decided not to bring a lawsuit testing the accuracy of the assessment. MetLife Chairman and Chief Executive Steven Kandarian called the U.S. designation “premature” because the rules aren’t yet crafted that will govern MetLife and the other insurers. “The council should wait until the rules are in place and it knows the impact on designated firms,” he said.
