Prudential Financial Inc., the insurer contesting a decision deeming it systemically important, won the support of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) during a vote of U.S. regulators last month, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) voted 7-2 to designate an unidentified company as systemically important, meaning the firm could endanger the financial system if it were to fail, according to minutes of the June 3 meeting released yesterday by the Treasury Department. The company was Prudential, according to sources, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t officially released. The FHFA’s acting director, Edward DeMarco, voted “no,” as did Roy Woodall, a former Kentucky state insurance commissioner who is the council’s independent member with insurance expertise, the panel said. Prudential is the only one of three companies appealing the FSOC’s ruling subjecting them to heightened Federal Reserve oversight. The Newark, New Jersey-based insurer said on July 2 that it requested a hearing to explain why it shouldn’t be designated.
