In 2004, for example, the agency helped to shoot down a California law that would have required customer permission before banks shared their personal information with business affiliates.
Although a U.S. District Court judge upheld the privacy law, an appeals court ruled last year that its major provisions were preempted by federal law.
Last year, the agency went to court on the side of a banking association to block an investigation by New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer into possible racial bias in the lending practices of several banks.
A federal judge agreed that Spitzer's investigation "impermissibly infringes" on the authority of the comptroller's office. The state is appealing.
Turf battles over banking regulation have occurred in the past, but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has become more aggressive in pushing preemption under Bush.
Agency officials say they have zero tolerance for abusive practices and bristle at complaints that they might be chasing off state watchdogs to the detriment of consumers.
The banks "have an enormous body of consumer compliance laws and regulations that we apply to them at the federal level," said Julie L. Williams, the agency's senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel.
But Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr., a George Washington University professor specializing in banking law, said, "The OCC hasn't been, shall we say, a very zealous enforcer on the consumer side.... States have been far more vigorous."
Greve, the American Enterprise Institute scholar who has been a mainstay of the conservative brain trust promoting preemption, said well-connected industry law firms were part of a policy network providing legal and political rationale for the effort.
He called them "a merry band of Washington lawyers ... who know how to push the buttons" and get things done.
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Levin reported from Los Angeles and Miller from Washington. Times researcher Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.
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Official ties to industry
Bush administration officials with previous ties to the auto industry:
Andrew H. Card Jr. was General Motors Corp.'s vice president of government relations. He represented GM on matters of public policy before Congress and the administration. From 1993 to 1998, Card was president and chief executive of the top auto industry trade group. He is now White House chief of staff.
Jacqueline Glassman was a senior regulatory counsel at Daimler-Chrysler Corp. She is now the acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Jeffrey A. Rosen was a senior partner at Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm that has defended GM in numerous product-liability suits and represents the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. He is the general counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Los Angeles Times
