The Financial Services Forum (FSF), which deployed the Too Big To Fail (TBTF) CEOs to the White House on Oct. 2 in the midst of the government shutdown, to demand that Obama block Glass Steagall, continue the quantitative easing and extend the debt ceiling, is self-described as the most powerful lobbying force in America. Founded in 2000 to oversee the implementation of the Gramm Leach Bliley bill which repealed Glass Steagall, the group is comprised of the CEOs of the 19 biggest financial institutions—banks and insurance companies—operating in the United States. Thus, the group includes many foreign banks and insurance companies that have a large market presence in the U.S., including Deutschebank, HSBC, Credit Suisse and UBS.
The following insurance giants are part of the FSF: AIG, Metlife, Prudential, and Allstate. Non-banks including Edward Jones, GE Capital and Fidelity are also participants, along with Boston Vault’s State Street Bank and the BNYMellon Bank. The group’s chairman is Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and the vice chairman is Brian Moynihan of Bank of America.
Like the earlier Oct. 2 meeting of the top bankers with the White House, on Oct. 23 a group of big insurance companies met ith top White House officials and HHS Secretary Sebelius to “iron out” problems with Obamacare implementation. Aetna, Wellpoint, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, HealthNet, Centene CEOs were among the participants. A follow-up meeting was held at the White House on Nov. 5, where Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough met with CEOs from some of the largest health insurers, purportedly to get them to “ramp up communication and education efforts” to those who are losing their insurance plans.
According to a 2012 PriceWaterhouseCooper study, these medical insurance giants were projected to boost annual sales by $205 billion once Obamacare is implemented, although LaRouchePAC’s estimates are that their actual windfall will be closer to $300 billion per year.