The alliance is established under ICBA Insurance Services, a new corporation within ICBA.

Under the ICBA-Iroquois program, agency volumes are aggregated under the one association. Agencies would have access to lines of business unavailable to them before because they could not reach carrier volume requirements.

William "Twig" Branch, president of Iroquois Group, based in Olean, N.Y., said discussions began two years ago with the association that has close to 4,600 member banking institutions. A number of the institutions have small agencies dealing in personal and small commercial insurance, which Iroquois mainly deals in, he said.

The agreement allows Iroquois to expand beyond its current geographic reach into Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, and North Dakota and South Dakota.

"We want to grow and this gives us the jump start we were looking for in this part of the country," said Mr. Branch.

Daniel Clancy, director of services and executive vice president of ICBA Insurance Services said 35 percent of the membership operates agencies and they need markets to grow in.

"They are small independent banks with small agencies with small premium volume," he said. "It is difficult for many of them to establish carrier relationships. This will let them join a network to aggregate premium volumes and improve their revenue opportunities because they have not been able to qualify [for some carrier relationships to grow their businesses].

"We looked at other provider networks and Iroquois was the best partner," he said. "Their demographic fits ours, their members are the same size as ours, and their footprint is similar. They are the same in lot of areas as our members and we found a comfort level there."

He said ICBA members would be a part of the Iroquois group, and not form a separate organization.

"We are excited to bring the benefits of network membership to our members," Mr. Clancy said.

Besides offering access to insurance, Mr. Branch said that some of the members may be looking for advice on how to run an insurance agency, because some are venturing into the agency business for the first time. While not offering consulting services, he said Iroquois would offer advice to those who ask.

"They are a very receptive group of people," he observed, adding, "The membership is committed to making this work." Mr. Branch said ICBA paid "a modest endorsement fee," to Iroquois toward the alliance. Agent members pay dues of $150 a month. Twenty percent of the commission from the insurance sale goes to Iroquois and the remaining 80 percent to the agent.