The Independent Insurance Agents of America is expected to join the flood of nonbanks seeking thrift charters.
IIAA officials said Friday that they want to acquire a thrift so their agents can sell certificates of deposit, loans, and other banking products.
"Financial services are integrating rapidly, and we want to make sure that independent agents have the ability and wherewithal to offer new products," said Robert A. Rusbuldt, the group's vice president of federal affairs.
The plans are in early stages and the organization has not yet asked the Office of Thrift Supervision for a charter.
Twenty-three nonbanks are already seeking thrift charters. Five other nonbanks, including Travelers Group, have received thrift charters since Congress began debating pending financial reform legislation.
The Telecommunications firm Excel Corp. received its charter Feb. 6. Since then the agency has not approved any charters for nonbanks.
Despite the lag, an OTS spokesman insisted the agency is not purposefully holding up applications. "They are very complex, and we have a lot of questions about each one," he said. "I wouldn't read anything into the time it's taking."
The agents group hopes to keep its members, who sell policies from a variety of insurance underwriters, on par with agents who affiliate with banks or who are employed by big insurance underwriters with thrift subsidiaries.
Most notable among those competitors is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., which has applied to start a thrift so it may offer banking products through its 16,300 agents nationwide.
The agents group is not the first trade organization to consider a thrift charter. The OTS has received a request from 17 state affiliates of the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Cos. has said it plans to request a thrift charter.
Acquiring a thrift would put the agents in an awkward position in the financial reform debate. Their group is an adamant supporter of the bill, because it would give state insurance commissioners more power to challenge federal bank regulators in court. However, the thrift industry is opposed to legislation, because it would place new restrictions on thrifts and their owners.
But Mr. Rusbuldt insisted that owning a thrift would not change the agents' stance.
"We support the financial modernization bill-no ifs, ands, or buts," he said. "And we have no plans to get involved in debate over the thrift charter issues."
In fact, the group's 800 members in town this week for the group's national legislation conference will visit Capitol Hill to lobby for the bill.
