(March 29) – “The financial-services industry failed in a late bid to weaken Congress’s widely popular effort to curb unsolicited ‘spam’ e-mail, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved the bill,” write Michael Schroeder and Glen Simpson in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“A recently formed consortium of banking, insurance and securities firms that mounted an opposition campaign will now have to redouble its efforts in the full chamber, having lost in what is normally its most sympathetic venue.

“The lobbying campaign also had an unintended boomerang effect. Two Democrats on the committee asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether securities firms are using shady practices to market on the Internet. In a letter to acting SEC Chairwoman Laura Unger, Reps. John Dingell (D., Mich.) and Edward Markey (D., Mass.) asked the agency to find out if investment promoters use junk e-mail to solicit investors, if broker-dealers send e-mail with stock-buying advice, if the industry improperly acquires e-mail addresses and if recently enacted financial-company privacy rules are being violated.

“’The fact that these industries are expressing such strong opposition to legislation restricting unsolicited ‘spam’ e-mails raises a number of interesting questions regarding current industry practices,’ the lawmakers wrote.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment.

According to recent research by Brightmail Inc., a San Francisco firm that sells services to help companies block spam from clogging their computer systems, about 32% of the spam it collected and reviewed in the week of March 5-11 consisted of finance-related solicitations. A typical missive promises, “Lowest Rates in 8 YEARS!! Shop The Best Loan For You! The Money Lending Network is a 100% free service which lets you shop for a mortgage.”

Financial-services industry officials say they don’t engage in bulk e-mail solicitations of the sort that angers consumers.

But Ray Everett-Church, counsel for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, a consumer group pushing for curbs on spam, says opposition to the bill by financial-services firms raises suspicions that they have further plans for e-mail advertising.