WASHINGTON — Signaling more troubles ahead for President Bush's campaign to overhaul Social Security, a group representing the nation's biggest financial companies said Monday that it had decided not to renew its membership in a business coalition raising millions of dollars to back the effort.
The Financial Services Forum, which represents chief executives from such corporate heavyweights as American Express, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, was a co-founder of the Coalition for the Modernization and Protection of America's Social Security, or Compass. But it left the coalition last month after its members failed to agree on Bush's plan to let workers divert some of their payroll tax into individual investment accounts.
"We never really came to a consensus on things like personal accounts and endorsing any specific plan," said Ken Trepeta, the forum's vice president. "I couldn't in good conscience sign our guys up for this."
The move by the group, headed by former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.), is the latest indication of the conflicting pressures facing corporate executives -- on one side, a White House eager for their backing on Bush's top domestic priority and on the other, corporate shareholders wary of endangering profits by entering a politically charged battle that could alienate customers and some investors.
Trepeta said the forum had helped to create Compass to push for Social Security restructuring in general, and it was not prepared to become embroiled in a highly partisan war over private investment accounts.
"It's all over the news, and people are debating and rebutting and hedging, and I guess in a way we are too," he said. "We want to have a fair debate."
Derrick A. Max, executive director of Compass, declined to comment Monday about the forum's decision. A White House spokesman did not return a call.
The forum's shift follows the decision by two securities firms -- Edward Jones and Waddell & Reed -- to drop out of a related lobbying group set up to promote private accounts on Capitol Hill, the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security.
Financial services companies have come under particular pressure from opponents of private accounts, especially the AFL-CIO. These critics charge that the companies stand to benefit from Bush's plan to let workers divert taxes into stocks and bonds that the companies would manage.
