Time and time again we hear of regulators targeting large financial corportations to pay up for shoddy behavior during the run-up to the financial crisis. Now, it seems the tables have turned.
MetLife is suing a panel of regulators, known as the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), to fight its designation as “systemically important,” making it the first financial company to go to court over the issue since the government started singling out "too-big-to-fail" institutions, according to the
New York Times.
The label subjects the company to more oversight, even though insurers already fall under a comprehensive state-level “regime that supervises every aspect of MetLife’s U.S. insurance business,” according to a complaint filed by MetLife.
The court documents also stated that the FSOC relied on “vague standards and assertions, unsubstantiated speculation and unreasonable assumptions” in tagging MetLife with the label and denied the company an opportunity for rebuttal.
The company said it isn’t a systemically important financial institution because it “is not predominantly engaged in financial activities” as defined by the Dodd-Frank law behind the designation, according to
Bloomberg.
