In 1997, lobbyists for the Independent Insurance Agents of America,
under pressure from then Senate Banking Committee Chair Alfonse
D'Amato (R-NY), threw in the towel and agreed to negotiate with
their long time enemies, the banking and Wall Street investment
industries, on new laws structuring the financial industry for the
21st century. Their compromise removed a major
legislative barrier to facilitating the emergence of large, one-stop
shopping financial corporations. More surprisingly, the Consumer
Federation of America and other public interest groups also started
bargaining over the shape of the consumer protection laws governing
these new institutions. Getting something through bargaining, they
believed, was better than letting the financial industry write these
laws themselves. Not all consumer groups participated in these
negotiations or gave support to the final bill; there were just not
enough consumer protection provisions included to please their
ideologically motivated members. Nor did every banking and insurance
agent organization support the final deal, largely because their
members felt threatened by the prospect of an industry dominated by
a few financial behemoths. Yet the final interest group coalition
that drove the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 across President Bill
Clinton's desk was truly surprising in its ideological breadth.