Another trade group has joined the battle against the Independent Insurance Agents of America and legislation that would allow states to restrict insurance activities of national banks.
The Financial Institutions Insurance Association, a trade group for banks and thrifts interested in insurance brokerage, protested the bill in letters to House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley - its sponsor - and other key lawmakers.
In the letter, Allen L. Raiken, a lobbyist for the group, attacked the bill as an attempt by the insurance agents "to preserve to themselves the ability to offer insurance products to the general public."
The group, whose members include First Interstate and Chemical Bank, has called for federal legislation granting insurance brokerage powers to all banks and thrifts.
The American Bankers Association has been out front so far in the fight against the Bliley bill. Other groups, including the Independent Bankers Association of America and the Bankers Roundtable, are on record in opposition to the measure but have yet to commit any lobbying resources.
Big banks attending the Bankers Roundtable's annual meeting earlier this month were urged to hang tough in the battle to preserve the industry's long-sought insurance premium reduction.
At the trade group pow-wow in Naples, Fla., 230 regional and money- center bankers were briefed about the group's "hands off" stance on the looming disparity between bank and thrift insurance fund premiums.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is expected to lower bank premiums later this year to 4 cents for each $100 of domestic deposits, while leaving thrift rates unchanged at an average of 24 cents.
Anthony T. Cluff, the Roundtable's executive director, said that banks should not make any concessions to thrifts in the debate about how to shrink the premium disparity.
"We don't have something we want to put on the table," Mr. Cluff said. "We think that the first order of business is to get insurance premiums down in a quick and orderly fashion."
The Roundtable also called for the option to conduct new activities directly in a bank subsidiary, rather than through a holding company subsidiary, as is prescribed by Rep. Jim Leach's Glass-Steagall bill.
"There should be room in any legislation for flexibility in how new powers are set up in a bank," Mr. Cluff said.
The ABA did some fast footwork to reschedule its May 9 legislative liaison advisory committee (or LLAC, pronounced "lilac") when it learned that the House Banking Committee planned to vote on Glass-Steagall legislation that day.
The trade group moved the meeting up a day, and promised that bank lobbyists attending would receive lobbying materials for use that afternoon.
And in case there was any doubt about who should show up, the ABA's top lobbyist, Ed Yingling, added the following qualification: "Only those supporting the banking industry's position favoring repeal of Glass- Steagall should attend."
That would probably leave out the insurance agents.
