2nd UPDATE: MetLife Explores Sale Of Bank To Avoid New Regulations
July 21 2011 - 1:51PM
Dow Jones News
MetLife Inc. (MET), the largest life insurer in the U.S., said
it was exploring the sale of its much smaller banking operations to
avoid new federal regulations.
MetLife's insurance operations are overseen by state regulators.
But given its overall size and its bank charter, it was considered
a leading candidate among insurers to be designated as a
"systemically important financial institution" and face further
scrutiny from the Federal Reserve and other regulators.
"We do not believe it is appropriate for the overwhelming
majority of our business to be governed by regulations written for
banking institutions," said MetLife Chief Executive Steven
Kandarian. "In a highly competitive global insurance marketplace,
it is imperative that MetLife be able to operate on a level playing
field with other insurance companies."
The company joins Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG)
and Allstate Corp. (ALL) in shedding its bank operations in an
effort to avoid the added scrutiny that banks face under the
Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul bill enacted last year. Still,
insurers without bank-holding companies can still become targets of
added federal oversight if selected as "nonbanks" that are
nonetheless deemed systemically important.
Rules about what would qualify as a systemically important
nonbank are still being developed in Washington, but the nonbanks
"could have a more open framework in determining required capital
levels," said Randy Binner, an insurance analyst at FBR Capital
Markets. Measurements of capital used by banks are "not appropriate
for life insurers," he wrote in a note to clients Thursday.
MetLife had been organized as a bank-holding company since 2001
but would be restructured if the company were to complete the sale.
MetLife plans to continue offering mortgages and reverse mortgages,
but that business would need to be licensed on a state-by-state
basis if MetLife were to separate the mortgage operation from its
banking business.
MetLife Bank has total assets of $15.6 billion and deposits of
$9.3 billion as of March 31. The bank accounted for about 2% of the
company's first-quarter operating earnings.
MetLife shares rose 2.4% to $41.88 in afternoon trading.
-By Erik Holm, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2892;
erik.holm@dowjones.com
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