Capital Briefs: Miss. Off Base in Insurance Case, ABA Says

The American Bankers Association tried to seize the offensive in a key insurance case, telling a federal judge Friday that Mississippi officials have misinterpreted the law.

Mississippi's insurance commissioner has claimed the right under the McCarran-Ferguson Act to regulate annuity sales by national banks in his state.

But the ABA said Mississippi's argument in Deposit Guaranty National Bank v. Dale is full of "misstatements of law and fact." The National Bank Act - and not McCarran-Ferguson - governs annuity sales, it said.

The trade group also noted that the Supreme Court ruled last year in the Valic case that the bank act gives the Comptroller of the Currency the power to let national banks sell annuities, regardless of state law.

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