Insurer, Store Operator Seek to Open Thrifts

Marsh & McLennan, the world’s largest insurance broker, and Federated Department Stores, the parent of Bloomingdales and Macy’s, made separate filings seeking permission to run federally chartered savings banks, the Office of Thrift Supervision said. Federated Department Stores plans to convert its existing credit card subsidiary into a savings and loan, while Marsh & McLennan wants to set up a new savings and loan holding company, the firms said in filings to OTS. Marsh & McLennan owns Putnam Investments, one of the largest U.S. money managers, and Mercer Consulting Group, giving it a big potential customer base for banking products and services. The issue of commercial firms venturing into banking territory by setting up unitary thrift holding companies has been a focus of recent efforts to overhaul U.S. banking laws. Opponents of the practice, including the Treasury and Federal Reserve, say it is a loophole in current law that promotes a potentially dangerous mixing of banking and commerce. Three banking bills before Congress would bar new unitary thrift applications, but two of them would allow existing thrifts to continue to be bought by commercial firms.