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September 21, 2006 at 01:32 PM
Members of the House today voted 418-13 to send President Bush the Senate version of a bill that would change the rules governing sales of life insurance and other products to military service members on military bases.
Supporters of the bill, S. 418, the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act, say they expect the president to sign the bill.
S. 418 was introduced by Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Officials at the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers, Falls Church, Va., and the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, have issued statements welcoming passage of the bill.
NAIFA is pleased that the bill “appropriately recognizes state jurisdiction over the sale of life insurance on military bases and takes advantage of existing state regulatory safeguards intended to protect all consumers from unfair and deceptive sales practices,” the group says.
ACLI President Frank Keating also is praising bill provisions that would give state regulators oversight of insurance sales on military bases.
The House passed its own version of the bill in June 2005, but it recently decided to accept the Senate bill, according to a NAIFA official.
The House decision to approve the Senate version eliminates the need for a time-consuming reconciliation process.
Although some provisions of the Senate bill are tougher on financial services companies, the Senate bill leaves out “predatory lending” provisions that were included in the House bill.
The Senate had originally planned to address that issue separately, but provisions dealing with that have been added to the 2007 fiscal year defense authorization conference report.
The conference report is still in conference, and bankers are looking to see whether the transferred lending provisions will affect the credit card business.
