Next Stop for TRIA Provision Renewal Campaign: Treasury Department

WASHINGTON, DC-The Mortgage Bankers Association has revealed its next step in the fight to renew the “make available” provision of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act before its scheduled expiration on September 1 of this year. MBA Commercial/Multifamily group senior vice president Gail Davis Cardwell tells GlobeSt.com that the organization has arranged to take its campaign for renewal straight to the US Department of the Treasury. The expiration of the entire TRIA legislation is scheduled for December 31, 2005, but failure to renew the “make available” stipulation of the law could likely bring the entire act to its knees before next year’s expiration.

MBA’s last action in the renewal endeavor came last week with the release of a survey detailing the pervasiveness of terrorism risk insurance and the negative impact the loss of the “make available” provision–which calls for insurance companies to make terrorism insurance available on the same terms as property and casualty insurance–will have on the real estate industry if not renewed. The survey concluded that without the extension, a mere 20% of the portfolios would have the insurance by 2005 or, there would be a decrease of $416 billion in the balance of loans that would be covered for losses.