NU Online News Service, Jan. 27, 1:38 p.m.EST

Bank insurance brokerage fee income rose close to 12 percent inthe third quarter of 2009 compared with the same period the yearbefore, according to a consulting company.

Michael White company's Michael White-Prudential Bank InsuranceFee Income Report also said that Wells Fargo insurance brokeragehad the highest fee income among bank brokerages.

The Radnor, Pa.-based consulting firm found that for the 2009third quarter total bank insurance brokerage fee income reached$3.05 billion, up 11.7 percent compared to $2.73 billion inthird-quarter 2008. It is the greatest amount in five quarters,according to the report.

Over the first three quarters of 2009, bank holding companyinsurance brokerage fee income held up relatively well, tallying$9.1 billion year-to-date, down only less than 1 percent from $9.2billion for the same period in 2008, the report said.

Thus far in 2009, some 64 percent of large top-tier bank holdingcompanies are engaged in insurance brokerage activities, the reportnoted.

The report is based on data from all 7,319 commercial andFDIC-supervised savings banks and 922 large top-tier bank holdingcompanies operating on Sept. 30, 2009.

It measures and benchmarks the banking industry's performance ingenerating insurance brokerage and underwriting fee income. Theinsurance fee income consists of commissions and fees earned by abank holding company or its subsidiary from insurance product salesand referrals of credit, life, health, property and casualty, andtitle insurance.

Wells Fargo & Co., the top earning bank insurance brokerage,took in nearly $1.4 billion in fees. Citigroup Inc. ranked secondwith $771 million. BB&T Corp. rounded out the top three with$700 million in insurance brokerage revenue, according to thereport.

Five of the top 11 producers of insurance brokerage were newlychartered bank holding companies: Morgan Stanley, GMAC Inc.,Discover Financial, American Express Company and The Goldman SachsGroup Inc.

Bank holding companies over $10 billion in assets continued tohave the highest participation in insurance brokerage activities,close to 90 percent.

These top BHCs produced $8.53 billion in insurance fee income inthe first three quarters of 2009, less than 1 percent off of the$8.6 billion they produced for the same period in 2008. They alsoaccounted for close to 94 percent of all BHC insurance brokeragefee income earned during the period.

The entry of new BHCs with significant insurance brokerageincome has offset the loss of other BHC insurance operations, thereport said.