European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 27, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes business news Buck retains gains despite intervention the Dollar held onto its recent gains last week withstanding a round of Central Bank intervention in the far East and rumours of an interest rate increase in West Germany that briefly threatened to cause losses. Instead the Buck closed out the week s trading in Europe in the neighbourhood of 1.96 Marks for a Dollar roughly the same Exchange rate As a week earlier. Service members in West German will Sec their dollars buy 1.94 Marks through monday afternoon based on a Price fixing in Frankfurt on Friday. That rate is exactly the same one offered in military banking circles a week earlier. Currency traders said the next several Days will Likely continue Tobe stable ones for the by Randy Mcclain Buck although most traders believe higher rates Are still possible after this period of Consolida Tion. Gunter Tucich. A foreign Exchange expert with the Bank of Boston in Frankfurt said he doubts there will be much in the Way of economic news in the week ahead to Spur the Dollar immediately higher. Most dealers Sec the Dollar trading in a Range Between 1.94 and 1.97 Marks Over the next few Days. I think we can still go a Little bit up but whenever the Dollar goes above 1.96s Marks we Sec intervention from the Central Banks Tucich said. It appears they Don t want the Dollar to go too  the most obvious evidence of Central Bank ers Power came into play thursday when the Bank of Japan sold Between $200 million and $400 million on world markets to help put a halt to a Brief rally by the Buck. One bit of economic news with potential to Aid the Dollar is a report due from the . Com Merce department on tuesday that is expected to show that the . Gross National product Rose More than previously announced in the second Quarter this year. Initially second Quarter Gnu was reported to have grown a meager 1.7 percent. Now som private forecasters arc predicting the revised Fig ure will tip the Scales at 2.7 percent growth. That Type of increase should be enough to Bury an lingering fears of recession among economists and it should also help keep american interest rates at or slightly above their current 9 percent Levels despite Calls from the Bush administration for rates to come Down. Teich however said currency markets May already have taken into account the Early reports of a big change in the Gross National product and the actual release of a revised figure might not be enough to give the Dollar a significant boost. Those figures have already been discounted More or less in the  the Bank of Boston executive said. Another Issue that could affect the Dollar Over the next few weeks is the possibility that the West German Bundesbank spurred into action by inflation in its country will increase key in Terest rates in an attempt to Cool off the econ omy. There were persistent rumours that the Bundesbank was poised to raise rates late last week Bueno action was taken. If West German rates do eventually go up it could help the Mark and Hurt the Dollar. Investors generally seek out rising interest rates when looking for a place to invest their Money. On the West German interest rate front though Teich said not to worry. Import prices in West Germany fell 1.5 per cent in july from june and Teich said he does t think inflation is enough of a problem on this Side of the Atlantic yet to prompt another round of rate increases. We might see Germany Rales go up later in the fall but not right now he said.  firm now doing business without army sales permit by Randy Mcclain financial writer one of the 20 largest life insurance companies in the United states upset because it believes the . Army Europe is placing roadblocks in the Way of its salesmen and financial consultants has decided to do business in West Germany without a military solicitation per Mit. Officials with ids life insurance and ids financial services maintain the permit Given put by usar Eurthay allows salesmen to work on military installations in t Worth the paper it s written on and they predict that others of the remaining 53 companies with the permit will decide the same thing. At least one other company is considering following suit the stars and stripes has Learned. Executives in West Germany with Prudential the largest american insurance company with almost $700billion of life insurance in Force also View the army s rules As Overly restrictive. It s to the Point now that i be asked my company to withdraw from the solicitation program said Jan Hudson general agent for Europe with the Prudential insurance co. Of America. The rugs Are written negatively and interpreted negatively he said. It s As if someone said what can we do to keep agents from functioning Over Here " John Schlagheck division manager for ids in Hei Delberg West Germany said the army s rules Ham string life insurance companies growth and prevent the firms from hiring enough qualified sales people. All they Are is a hindrance and a pain in the butt said Jay Core an ids financial planner from the Frankfurt West Germany area. Ids which ranks 18th in total assets among . Life insurance firms decided last month to do business in Europe without a Usa eur permit. The permit also applies to air Force bases in Europe. Ids s decision Means the firm s personnel can t set foot on military installations but company officials said their salesmen rarely did that anyway. Most ids agents have offices near bases and meet with clients there. Schlagheck said his firm decided to go uncleared As operating without a permit is known in the insurance Industry in Europe because the army requires insurance salesmen to have worked in the Field in the United states for at least one of the past five years before working overseas and restricts companies to 50 agents. Ids thinks both rules Are unfair. It. Col. Ronald Smitherman chief of Usa eur s personnel actions division and the Man in charge of insurance permits said hell look into ids s complaints if they arc shared by other companies. If in addition to ids there arc others that come in with substantive Points of concern certainly i am going to take a look at the regulation said Smither Man who has held his Job about two months. If you get a consensus of companies All hitting on the same Points then i will look at that. Where there is smoke there s fire so to  Hudson said companies like Prudential that play along with the permit process get no benefits from it. Agents who want to see a client on a military Post still must be met by that person at the Gate to be signed in at almost All bases Hudson said. The Prudential Gener Al agent said he believes companies that have a usar eur accreditation card should be allowed free Access to installations just As if they had a department of defense id card. The military should be giving companies with accreditation an incentive to do business he said. As 1 see it the Usa eur policy is ancient said Warren Stanley an ids District manager near Rhein main a. We re not a Security risk added Schlagheck of ids. Why restrict us from doing business Schlagheck said ids s decision has generated some negative publicity for his company but in the Long run he thinks the move will help the firm grow. By leaving the Usa eur system ids can hire More agents for its life insurance and financial plan Ning businesses. It also can hire people who Haven t worked in insurance sales stateside within the past five years a requirement ids officials consider unnecessary. Ids has the ability to teach its agents More about the business than they could learn through one year of on the Job training in the United states Schlagheck said. Today the company has 30 salesmen and Finan Cial planners. Ids s biggest problems since it decided to do Busi Ness without a Usa eur permit have been a whisper Campaign by some competitors claiming that the com Pany did something illegal and a false report by usar eur officials themselves that the company was Black listed by the army. The latter report was included in an army bulletin sent to military communities across Europe last month. The incorrect Story was repeated by a number of Community newspapers. Smitherman said a correction will be printed in the near future in a subsequent army bulletin. Ids s decision docs not mean that . Service members arc barred from doing business with the com Pany. It Only prevents the company s sales agents from going on military installations or visiting government leased housing to meet with clients. Smitherman however said  who live on the Economy can invite ids representatives into their Homes. He also acknowledged it would be difficult to discover agents visiting military housing areas unless those Sites have Gale guards and id card checks. Observers believe ids will continue to be successful operating outside the Usa eur permit process. A company with mainly new agents might have problems but an established company generally Doc business on a referral basis anyway. Prudential s Hudson said. Stanley one of ids s top financial planners said he has t set foot on a military installation for a business meeting in years. There Are people who hang around the base trolling for clients but that s the opposite end from what our company does he said. I do formalized financial planning and 1 do business at my office. We Don t have to trick customers into seeing  still representatives from ids and other financial firms Hope Usa eur eventually will relax its permit requirements. Smitherman said he s willing to make changes if it turns out the army is doing something wrong. The regulation is being reviewed now he said. If there s something stupid in there Well take Steps to change it if it can be done legally. I m certainly not Here to try to Stop a person from making a living sell ing  pay tuition now go later firm says by Deirdre Carmody new York times a private company has proposed a nationwide pay now attend later plan guaranteeing parents current tuition rates years before their children go to College. The plan to protect parents against future tuition increases was announced by the Acmar education corp. Of America an educational financing group in St. Paul Minn. The proposal is a variation on some stale programs now in effect. It would cover both Public and private. Colleges., the company said the prepayment plan could save thousands of dollars for students and help allay fears that tuition will be out of reach by the time they Are ready to attend school. In the 1980s, College tuition has increased an average 9.7 percent a year while inflation has averaged 4.8 percent. Hemar Hopes to have its program under Way by the end of the year. Schools such As Arizona state the University of Wisconsin and George Washington University have expressed interest in the plan. Parents would pay a Lump sum into investment accounts run by Acmar for the Benefit of participating colleges and the company would collect i percent annually from the interest earned on the accounts As it management fee. Each family s c9ntribution would guarantee four years of education paid in full. Participating schools would guarantee that no additional tuition payments would be required. The schools would then try to make As much or More from investing students Money today than they would get from higher tuition years later