The federal banking agencies have proposed guidelines for insured institutions that sell mutual funds, but Rep. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to go a step further and write those rules into law.
Rep. Schumer, an influential member of the banking committee, is drafting legislation that would codify the mutual fund rules.
An aide to Rep. Schumer said the lawmaker would largely follow the approach of the regulators, but with a few twists.
In the past, Mr. Schumer has expressed misgivings about bank sponsorship of investment products, and his rules are likely to be more restrictive than those, offered by the banking agencies.
For one thing, Rep. Schumer does not agree with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that banks ought to be able to put their names on their mutual funds, as would be the case with NationsBank Corp. and NationsFund.
The regulations proposed by the Comptroller would permit the use of similar names, while those issued by the Federal Reserve would not. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has not acted on the issue.
Jack Devore, longtime aide to Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, is leaving his administration Post to return to Texas. Mr. Devore, the assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs, said he couldn't take bureaucratic life any longer.
The District of Columbia's banking regulator, Fe Morales Marks, is President Clinton's choice to be deputy assistant Treasury Secretary for financial institutions policy.
Just 11 days after the President Clinton called on the regulators to reform the Community Reinvestment Act, the effort is well under way.
Comptroller Eugene A. Ludwig, FDIC Chairman Andrew C. Hove, OTS Director Jonathan Fiechter, and Fed Governor Lawrence B. Lindsey met once last week and have scheduled a second meeting on the issue for today.
The four have agreed to meet weekly, on Mondays for now, to keep the effort rolling. They have until Jan. 1 to present their Plan to the President.
Many were surprised last week at the sudden cancellation of a House Banking subcommittee's long-scheduled hearing on fair lending.
Rep. Stephen L. Neal, D-N.C., chairman of the subcommittee on financial institutions, had invited all the bank regulators to testify on their stepped-up efforts to enforce antidiscrimination laws.
But when Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy 2d, D-Mass., got wind of the event, he quickly put an end to it.
His subcommittee on consumer credit and insurance has jurisdiction over fair lending, and nothing is more carefully guarded on Capitol Hill than jurisdiction.
The Massachusetts lawmaker asked Rep. Neal to cancel the hearing, and North Carolinian acquiesced.
