More changes are expected at the House Banking Committee.
Veteran Staff Director Anthony F. Cole, with more than 20 years of government service, will be eligible for full retirement benefits by midyear and is making plans to leave Capitol Hill, several sources said.
If he does, many predict Gary L. Parker, the committee's new general counsel, will move into the top job. Mr. Parker is a longtime staffer for House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach and his promotion would give the Iowa Republican his first opportunity to shape the panel's senior people since he took over the committee in January 1995.
Mr. Cole, who has worked for House Banking since 1986, was named minority staff director in 1988 by Rep. Chalmers Wylie and became committee staff director when the Republicans gained control of the House in 1994.
Joseph L. Seidel, a committee staffer since 1987, held the chief counsel's position until December, when he took a lobbying post at Williams & Jensen law firm.
Rumored to be a likely candidate to succeed Mr. Parker as chief counsel is Laurie S. Schaffer, on loan to the committee from the Federal Reserve Board for the last two years. On Monday, Ms. Schaffer began her second temporary stint at the banking committee where her title is acting deputy staff director.
"There is no way she is coming back for the same job she had in the last Congress," one lobbyist said. Ms. Schaffer was one of the top drafters of Rep. Leach's unsuccessful Glass-Steagall repeal bill last year.
A House Banking Committee spokesman said the rumors are unfounded. "Any talk of changes is premature," he said.
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Indiana lawmakers have failed to broker a truce over bank insurance powers, leaving the General Assembly to choose between competing bills expected to be introduced this month.
Prompted by a 1996 Supreme Court decision allowing national banks to sell insurance from towns of 5,000, Indiana is expected to provide the same power to state banks. Indiana Rep. Mike Smith has tried since July to broker a deal on legislation allowing state-chartered banks to sell life insurance.
Similar legislation is expected this year in several other states, including Illinois, South Carolina, and Louisiana. But, if Indiana is any indication, those initiatives may face a tough battle between industry groups.
Both sides agreed to require state insurance licenses for bank-operated insurance agencies and their employees who sell policies, and to restrict banks from forcing customers to buy life insurance to borrow.
The Indiana Bankers Association and other bank groups balked at restrictions on banks' ability to use credit information to market policies and at prohibitions on insurance sales by loan officers.
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Fleet Financial Group vice chairman Michael R. Zucchini will lead the legislative and regulatory subcommittee of the Bankers Roundtable task force on technology and payments.
As Congress gears up to debate new rules for electronic commerce, Mr. Zucchini and eight fellow subcommittee members will advise the roundtable on legislation needed to ensure the security of the payment systems and how the industry can best comply with new laws mandating electronic transfer of government benefits.
