TRIA is scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2005. "Today's studyconfirms earlier, anecdotal evidence that TRIA is a necessarystabilizing influence on the US economy and that its absence couldlead to the same kinds of disruptions that arose before the law'senactment in 2002," says Jeffrey DeBoer, Roundtable president andCEO.

"The Mortgage Bankers Association wholeheartedly endorses theconclusions of the Effects of Federal Participation in TerrorismRisk study," remarks Kieran Quinn, president and CEO-ColumnFinancial, Inc. and vice chair of the MBA's Commercial board ofgovernors. "TRIA has been extremely effective in making terrorisminsurance widely available. The TRIA extension is crucial tomaintaining economic stability in the US."

Entitled "The Economic Importance of Federal Participation inTerrorism Risk," the report by Deal and Hubbard, who is also aformer chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, isa result of the culling of information from industry publicationsand academic research, as well as from interviews with suchrespondents as policyholder representatives, lenders, insurers,reinsurers and trade associations. In conclusion, the study findsthat without TRIA, the consequent exorbitant costs orunavailability of insurance will negatively impact insurers andpolicyholders and "will result in lower economic performance andgreater disruption to the US economy in the event of a terroristattack."