Sec. 225.145 Limitations established by the
Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 on the activities and growth of
nonbank banks.
(a) Introduction. Effective August 10, 1987,
the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 (``CEBA'') redefined the term
``bank'' in the Bank Holding Company Act (``BHC Act'' or ``Act'') to include
any bank the deposits of which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation as well as any other institution that accepts demand or checkable
deposit accounts and is engaged in the business of making commercial loans.
12 U.S.C. 1841(c). CEBA also contained a grandfather provision for certain
companies affected by this redefinition. CEBA amended section 4 of the
BHC Act to permit a company that on March 5, 1987, controlled a nonbank
bank (an institution that became a bank as a result of enactment of CEBA)
and that was not a bank holding company on August 9, 1987, to retain its
nonbank bank and not be treated as a bank holding company for purposes
of the BHC Act if the company and its subsidiary nonbank bank observe certain
limitations imposed by CEBA.1 Certain of these limitations are
codified in section 4(f)(3) of the BHC Act and generally restrict nonbank
banks from commencing new activities or certain cross-marketing activities
with affiliates after March 5, 1987, or permitting overdrafts for affiliates
or incurring overdrafts on behalf of affiliates at a Federal Reserve Bank.
12 U.S.C. 1843(f)(3).2 The Board's views regarding the meaning
and scope of these limitations are set forth below and in provisions of
the Board's Regulation Y (12 CFR 225.52).
1 12 U.S.C. 1843(f). Such
a company is treated as a bank holding company, however, for purposes of
the anti-tying provisions in section 106 of the BHC Act Amendments of 1970
(12 U.S.C. 1971 et seq.) and the insider lending limitations of secton
22(h) of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 375b). The company is also
subject to certain examination and enforcement provisions to assure compliance
with CEBA.
2 CEBA also prohibits,
with certain limited exceptions, a company controlling a grandfathered
nonbank bank from acquiring control of an additional bank or thrift institution
or acquiring, directly or indirectly after March 5, 1987, more than 5 percent
of the assets or shares of a bank or thrift institution. 12 U.S.C. 1843(f)(2).
(b) Congressional findings. (1) At the outset,
the Board notes that the scope and application of the Act's limitations
on nonbank banks must be guided by the Congressional findings set out in
section 4(f)(3) of the BHC Act. Congress was aware that these nonbank banks
had been acquired by companies that engage in a wide range of nonbanking
activities, such as retailing and general securities activities that are
forbidden to bank holding companies under section 4 of the BHC Act. In
section 4(f)(3), Congress found that nonbank banks controlled by grandfathered
nonbanking companies may, because of their relationships with affiliates,
be involved in conflicts of interest, concentration of resources, or other
effects adverse to bank safety and soundness. Congress also found that
nonbank banks may be able to compete unfairly against banks controlled
by bank holding companies by combining banking services with financial
services not permissible for bank holding companies. Section 4(f)(3) states
that the purpose of the nonbank bank limitations is to minimize any such
potential adverse effects or inequities by restricting the activities of
nonbank banks until further Congressional action in the area of bank powers
could be undertaken. Similarly, the Senate Report accompanying CEBA states
that the restrictions CEBA places on nonbank banks ``will help prevent
existing nonbank banks from changing their basic character * * * while
Congress considers proposals for comprehensive legislation; from drastically
eroding the separation of banking and commerce; and from increasing the
potential for unfair competition, conflicts of interest, undue concentration
of resources, and other adverse effects.'' S. Rep. No. 100-19, 100th Cong.,
1st Sess. 12 (1987). See also H. Rep. No. 100-261, 100th Cong., 1st Sess.
124 (1987) (the ``Conference Report'').
(2) Thus, Congress explicitly recognized in
the statute itself that nonbanking companies controlling grandfathered
nonbank banks, which include the many of the nation's largest commercial
and financial organizations, were being accorded a significant competitive
advantage that could not be matched by bank holding companies because of
the general prohibition against nonbanking activities in section 4 of the
BHC Act. Congress recognized that this inequality in regulatory approach
could inflict serious competitive harm on regulated bank holding companies
as the grandfathered entities sought to exploit potential synergies between
banking and commercial products and services. See Conference Report at
125-126. The basic and stated purpose of the restrictions on grandfathered
nonbank banks is to minimize these potential anticompetitive effects.
(3) The Board believes that the specific CEBA
limitations should be implemented in light of these Congressional findings
and the legislative intent reflected in the plain meaning of the terms
used in the statute. In those instances when the language of the statute
did not provide clear guidance, legislative materials and the Congressional
intent manifested in the overall statutory structure were considered. The
Board also notes that prior precedent requires that grandfather exceptions
in the BHC Act, such as the nonbank bank limitations and particularly the
exceptions thereto, are to be interpreted narrowly in order to ensure the
proper implementation of Congressional intent.3
3 E.g., Maryland National
Corporation, 73 Federal Reserve Bulletin 310, 313-314 (1987). Cf., Spokane
& Inland Empire Railroad Co. v. United States, 241 U.S. 344, 350 (1915).
(c) Activity limitation--(1) Scope of activity.
(i) The first limitation established under section 4(f)(3) provides that
a nonbank bank shall not ``engage in any activity in which such bank was
not lawfully engaged as of March 5, 1987.'' The term activity as used in
this provision of CEBA is not defined. The structure and placement of the
CEBA activity restriction within section 4 of the BHC Act and its legislative
history do, however, provide direction as to certain transactions that
Congress intended to treat as separate activities, thereby providing guidance
as to the meaning Congress intended to ascribe to the term generally. First,
it is clear that the term activity was not meant to refer to banking as
a single activity. To the contrary, the term must be viewed as distinguishing
between deposit taking and lending activities and treating demand deposit-taking
as a separate activity from general deposit-taking and commercial lending
as separate from the general lending category.
(ii) Under the activity limitation, a nonbank
bank may engage only in activities in which it was ``lawfully engaged''
as of March 5, 1987. As of that date, a nonbank bank could not have been
engaged in both demand deposit-taking and commercial lending activity without
placing it and its parent holding company in violation of the BHC Act.
Thus, under the activity limitations, a nonbank bank could not after March
5, 1987, commence the demand deposit-taking or commercial lending activity
that it did not conduct as of March 5, 1987. The debates and Senate and
Conference Reports on CEBA confirm that Congress intended the activity
limitation to prevent a grandfathered nonbank bank from converting itself
into a full-service bank by both offering demand deposits and engaging
in the business of making commercial loans.4 Thus, these types
of transactions provide a clear guide as to the type of banking transactions
that would constitute activities under CEBA and the degree of specificity
intended by Congress in interpreting that term.
4 Conference Report at
124-25; S. Rep. No. 100-19 at 12, 32; H. Rep. No. 99-175, 99th Cong., 1st
Sess. 3 (1985) (``the activities limitation is to prevent an institution
engaged in a limited range of functions from expanding into new areas and
becoming, in essence, a full-service bank''); 133 Cong. Rec. S4054 (daily
ed. March 27, 1987); (Comments of Senator Proxmire).
(iii) It is also clear that the activity limitation
was not intended simply to prevent a nonbank bank from both accepting demand
deposits and making commercial loans; it has a broader scope and purpose.
If Congress had meant the term to refer to just these two activities, it
would have used the restriction it used in another section of CEBA dealing
with nonbank banks owned by bank holding companies which has this result,
i.e., the nonbank bank could not engage in any activity that would have
caused it to become a bank under the prior bank definition in the Act.
See 12 U.S.C. 1843(g)(1)(A). Indeed, an earlier version of CEBA under consideration
by the Senate Banking Committee contained such a provision for nonbank
banks owned by commercial holding companies, which was deleted in favor
of the broader activity limitation actually enacted. Committee Print No.
1, (Feb. 17, 1987). In this regard, both the Senate Report and Conference
Report refer to demand deposit-taking and commercial lending as examples
of activities that could be affected by the activity limitation, not as
the sole activities to be limited by the provision.5
5 Conference Report at
124-125; S. Rep. No. 100-19 at 32.
(iv) Finally, additional guidance as to the
meaning of the term activity is provided by the statutory context in which
the term appears. The activity limitation is contained in section 4 of
the BHC Act, which regulates the investments and activities of bank holding
companies and their nonbank subsidiaries. The Board believes it reasonable
to conclude that by placing the CEBA activity limitation in section 4 of
the BHC Act, Congress meant that Board and judicial decisions regarding
the meaning of the term activity in that section be looked to for guidance.
This is particularly appropriate given the fact that grandfathered nonbank
banks, whether owned by bank holding companies or unregulated holding companies,
were treated as nonbank companies and not banks before enactment of CEBA.
(v) This interpretation of the term activity
draws support from comments by Senator Proxmire during the Senate's consideration
of the provision that the term was not intended to apply ``on a product-by-
product, customer-by-customer basis.'' 133 Cong. Rec. S4054-5 (daily ed.
March 27, 1987). This is the same manner in which the Board has interpreted
the term activity in the nonbanking provision of section 4 as referring
to generic categories of activities, not to discrete products and services.
(vi) Accordingly, consistent with the terms
and purposes of the legislation and the Congressional intent to minimize
unfair competition and the other adverse effects set out in the CEBA findings,
the Board concludes that the term activity as used in section 4(f)(3) means
any line of banking or nonbanking business. This definition does not, however,
envision a product-by-product approach to the activity limitation. The
Board believes it would be helpful to describe the application of the activity
limitation in the context of the following major categories of activities:
deposit-taking, lending, trust, and other activities engaged in by banks.
(2) Deposit-taking activities. (i) With respect
to deposit-taking, the Board believes that the activity limitation in section
4(f)(3) generally refers to three types of activity: demand deposit-taking;
non- demand deposit-taking with a third party payment capability; and time
and savings deposit-taking without third party payment powers. As previously
discussed, it is clear from the terms and intent of CEBA that the activity
limitation would prevent, and was designed to prevent, nonbank banks that
prior to the enactment of CEBA had refrained from accepting demand deposits
in order to avoid coverage as a bank under the BHC Act, from starting to
take these deposits after enactment of CEBA and thus becoming full-service
banks. Accordingly, CEBA requires that the taking of demand deposits be
treated as a separate activity.
(ii) The Board also considers nondemand deposits
withdrawable by check or other similar means for payment to third parties
or others to constitute a separate line of business for purposes of applying
the activity limitation. In this regard, the Board has previously recognized
that this line of businesss constitutes a permissible but separate activity
under section 4 of the BHC Act. Furthermore, the offering of accounts with
transaction capability requires different expertise and systems than non-transaction
deposit- taking and represented a distinct new activity that traditionally
separated banks from thrift and similar institutions.
(iii) Support for this view may also be found
in the House Banking Committee report on proposed legislation prior to
CEBA that contained a similar prohibition on new activities for nonbank
banks. In discussing the activity limitation, the report recognized a distinction
between demand deposits and accounts with transaction capability and those
without transaction capability:
With respect to deposits, the Committee recognizes
that it is legitimate for an institution currently involved in offering
demand deposits or other third party transaction accounts to make use of
new technologies that are in the process of replacing the existing check-
based, paper payment system. Again, however, the Committee does not believe
that technology should be used as a lever for an institution that was only
incidentally involved in the payment system to transform itself into a
significant offeror of transaction account capability.6
(iv) Finally, this distinction between demand
and nondemand checkable accounts and accounts not subject to withdrawal
by check was specifically recognized by Congress in the redefinition of
the term bank in CEBA to include an institution that takes demand deposits
or ``deposits that the depositor may withdraw by check or other means for
payment to third parties or others'' as well as in various exemptions from
that definition for trust companies, credit card banks, and certain industrial
banks.7
7 See 12 U.S.C. 1841(c)(2)
(D), (F), (H), and (I).
(v) Thus, an institution that as of March 5,
1987, offered only time and savings accounts that were not withdrawable
by check for payment to third parties could not thereafter begin offering
accounts with transaction capability, for example, NOW accounts or other
types of transaction accounts.
(3) Lending. As noted, the CEBA activity limitation
does not treat lending as a single activity; it clearly distinguishes between
commercial and other types of lending. This distinction is also reflected
in the definition of bank in the BHC Act in effect both prior to and after
enactment of CEBA as well as in various of the exceptions from this definition.
In addition, commercial lending is a specialized form of lending involving
different techniques and analysis from other types of lending. Based upon
these factors, the Board would view commercial lending as a separate and
distinct activity for purposes of the activity limitation in section 4(f)(3).
The Board's decisions under section 4 of the BHC Act have not generally
differentiated between types of commercial lending, and thus the Board
would view commercial lending as a single activity for purposes of CEBA.
Thus, a nonbank bank that made commercial loans as of March 5, 1987, could
make any type of commercial loan thereafter.
(i) Commercial lending. For purposes of the
activity limitation, a commercial loan is defined in accordance with the
Supreme Court's decision in Board of Governors v. Dimension Financial Corporation,
474 U.S. 361 (1986), as a direct loan to a business customer for the purpose
of providing funds for that customer's business. In this regard, the Board
notes that whether a particular transaction is a commercial loan must be
determined not from the face of the instrument, but from the application
of the definition of commercial loan in the Dimension decision to that
transaction. Thus, certain transactions of the type mentioned in the Board's
ruling at issue in Dimension and in the Senate and Conference Reports in
the CEBA legislation 8 would be commercial loans if they meet
the test for commercial loans established in Dimension. Under this test,
a commercial loan would not include, for example, an open-market investment
in a commercial entity that does not involve a borrower-lender relationship
or negotiation of credit terms, such as a money market transaction.
8 S. Rep. No. 100-19 at
31; Conference Report at 123.
(ii) Other lending. Based upon the guidance
in the Act as to the degree of specificity required in applying the activity
limitation with respect to lending, the Board believes that, in addition
to commercial lending, there are three other types of lending activities:
consumer mortgage lending, consumer credit card lending, and other consumer
lending. Mortgage lending and credit card lending are recognized, discrete
lines of banking and business activity, involving techniques and processes
that are different from and more specialized than those required for general
consumer lending. For example, these activities are, in many cases, conducted
by specialized institutions, such as mortgage companies and credit card
institutions, or through separate organizational structures within an institution,
particularly in the case of mortgage lending. Additionally, the Board's
decisions under section 4 of the Act have recognized mortgage banking and
credit card lending as separate activities for bank holding companies.
The Board's Regulation Y reflects this specialization, noting as examples
of permissible lending activity: consumer finance, credit card and mortgage
lending. 12 CFR 225.25(b)(1). Finally, CEBA itself recognizes the specialized
nature of credit card lending by exempting an institution specializing
in that activity from the bank definition. For purpose of the activity
limitation, a consumer mortgage loan will mean any loan to an individual
that is secured by real estate and that is not a commercial loan. A credit
card loan would be any loan made to an individual by means of a credit
card that is not a commercial loan.
(4) Trust activities. Under section 4 of the
Act, the Board has historically treated trust activities as a single activity
and has not differentiated the function on the basis of whether the customer
was an individual or a business. See 12 CFR 225.25(b)(3). Similarly, the
trust company exemption from the bank definition in CEBA makes no distinction
between various types of trust activities. Accordingly, the Board would
view trust activities as a separate activity without additional differentiation
for purposes of the activity limitation in section 4(f)(3).
(5) Other activities. With respect to activities
other than the various traditional deposit-taking, lending or trust activities,
the Board believes it appropriate, for the reasons discussed above, to
apply the activity limitation in section 4(f)(3) as the term activity generally
applies in other provisions of section 4 of the BHC Act. Thus, a grandfathered
nonbank bank could not, for example, commence after March 5, 1987, any
of the following activities (unless it was engaged in such an activity
as of that date): discount securities brokerage, full- service securities
brokerage investment advisory services, underwriting or dealing in government
securities as permissible for member banks, foreign exchange transaction
services, real or personal property leasing, courier services, data processing
for third parties, insurance agency activities,9 real estate
development, real estate brokerage, real estate syndication, insurance
underwriting, management consulting, futures commission merchant, or activities
of the general type listed in Sec. 225.25(b) of Regulation Y.
9 In this area, section
4 of the Act does not treat all insurance agency activities as a single
activity. Thus, for example, the Act treats the sale of credit-related
life, accident and health insurance as a separate activity from general
insurance agency activities. See 12 U.S.C. 1843(c)(8).
(6) Meaning of engaged in. In order to be engaged
in an activity, a nonbank bank must demonstrate that it had a program in
place to provide a particular product or service included within the grandfathered
activity to a customer and that it was in fact offering the product or
service to customers as of March 5, 1987. Thus, a nonbank bank is not engaged
in an activity as of March 5, 1987, if the product or service in question
was in a planning state as of that date and had not been offered or delivered
to a customer. Consistent with prior Board interpretations of the term
activity in the grandfather provisions of section 4, the Board does not
believe that a company may be engaged in an activity on the basis of a
single isolated transaction that was not part of a program to offer the
particular product or to conduct in the activity on an ongoing basis. For
example, a nonbank bank that held an interest in a single real estate project
would not thereby be engaged in real estate development for purposes of
this provision, unless evidence was presented indicating the interest was
held under a program to commence a real estate development business.
(7) Meaning of as of The Board believes that
the grandfather date ``as of March 5, 1987'' as used throughout section
4(f)(3) should refer to activities engaged in on March 5, 1987, or a reasonably
short period preceding this date not exceeding 13 months. 133 Cong. Rec.
S3957 (daily ed. March 26, 1987). (Remarks of Senators Dodd and Proxmire).
Activities that the institution had terminated prior to March 5, 1988,
however, would not be considered to have been conducted or engaged in as
of March 5. For example, if within 13 months of March 5, 1987, the nonbank
bank had terminated its commercial lending activity in order to avoid the
bank definition in the Act, the nonbank bank could not recommence that
activity after enactment of CEBA.
(d) Cross-marketing limitation--(1) In general.
Section 4(f)(3) also limits cross-marketing activities by nonbank banks
and their affiliates. Under this provision, a nonbank bank may not offer
or market a product or service of an affiliate unless the product or service
may be offered by bank holding companies generally under section 4(c)(8)
of the BHC Act. In addition, a nonbank bank may not permit any of its products
or services to be offered or marketed by or through a nonbank affiliate
unless the affiliate engages only in activities permissible for a bank
holding company under section 4(c)(8). These limitations are subject to
an exception for products or services that were being so offered or marketed
as of March 5, 1987, but only in the same manner in which they were being
offered or marketed as of that date.
(2) Examples of impermissible cross-marketing.
The Conference Report illustrates the application of this limitation to
the following two covered transactions: (i) products and services of an
affiliate that bank holding companies may not offer under the BHC Act,
and (ii) products and services of the nonbank bank. In the first case,
the restrictions would prohibit, for example, a company from marketing
life insurance or automotive supplies through its affiliate nonbank bank
because these products are not generally permissible under the BHC Act.
Conference Report at 126. In the second case, a nonbank bank may not permit
its products or services to be offered or marketed through a life insurance
affiliate or automobile parts retailer because these affiliates engage
in activities prohibited under the BHC Act. Id.
(3) Permissible cross-marketing. On the other
hand, a nonbank bank could offer to its customers consumer loans from an
affiliated mortgage banking or consumer finance company. These affiliates
could likewise offer their customers the nonbank bank's products or services
provided the affiliates engaged only in activities permitted for bank holding
companies under the closely-related-to-banking standard of section 4(c)(8)
of the BHC Act. If the affiliate is engaged in both permissible and impermissible
activities within the meaning of section 4(c)(8) of the BHC Act, however,
the affiliate could not offer or market the nonbank bank's products or
services.
(4) Product approach to cross-marketing restriction.
(i) Unlike the activity restrictions, the cross-marketing restrictions
of CEBA apply by their terms to individual products and services. Thus,
an affiliate of a nonbank bank that was engaged in activities that are
not permissible for bank holding companies and that was marketing a particular
product or service of a nonbank bank on the grandfather date could continue
to market that product and, as discussed below, could change the terms
and conditions of the loan. The nonbank affiliate could not, however, begin
to offer or market another product or service of the nonbank bank.
(ii) The Board believes that the term product
or service must be interpreted in light of its accepted ordinary commercial
usage. In some instances, commercial usage has identified a group of products
so closely related that they constitute a product line (e.g., certificates
of deposit) and differences in versions of the product (e.g., a one-year
certificate of deposit) simply represent a difference in the terms of the
product.10 This approach is consistent with the treatment in
CEBA's legislative history of certificates of deposit as a product line
rather than each particular type of CD as a separate product.11
10 American Bankers Association,
Banking Terminology (1981).
11 During the Senate
debates on CEBA, Senator Proxmire in response to a statement from Senator
Cranston that the joint-marketing restrictions do not lock into place the
specific terms or conditions of the particular grandfathered product or
service, stated:
That is correct. For example,
if a nonbank bank was jointly marketing on March 5, 1987, a 3 year, $5,000
certificate of deposit, this bill would not prohibit offering in the same
manner a 1 year, $2,000 certificate of deposit with a different interest
rate. 133 Cong. Rec. S3959 (daily ed. March 26, 1987).
(iii) In the area of consumer lending, the
Board believes the following provide examples of different consumer loan
products: mortgage loans to finance the purchase of the borrower's residence,
unsecured consumer loans, consumer installment loans secured by the personal
property to be purchased (e.g. automobile, boat or home appliance loans),
or second mortgage loans.12 Under this interpretation, a nonbank
bank that offered automobile loans through a nonbank affiliate on the grandfather
date could market boat loans, appliance loans or any type of secured consumer
installment loan through that affiliate. It could not, however, market
unsecured consumer loans, home mortgage loans or other types of consumer
loans.
12 In this regard, the
Supreme Court in United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, noted that
``the principal banking products are of course various types of credit,
for example: unsecured personal and business loans, mortgage loans, loans
secured by securities or accounts receivable, automobile installment and
consumer goods, installment loans, tuition financing, bank credit cards,
revolving credit funds.'' 374 U.S. 321, 326 n.5 (1963).
(iv) In other areas, the Board believes that
the determination as to what constitutes a product or service should be
made on a case-by-case basis consistent with the principles that the terms
product or service must be interpreted in accordance with their ordinary
commercial usage and must be narrower in scope than the definition of activity.
Essentially, the concept applied in this analysis is one of permitting
the continuation of the specific product marketing activity that was undertaken
as of March 5, 1987. Thus, for example, while insurance underwriting may
constitute a separate activity under CEBA, a nonbank bank could not market
a life insurance policy issued by the affiliate if on the grandfather date
it had only marketed homeowners' policies issued by the affiliate.
&
(5) Change in terms and conditions permitted.
(i) The cross- marketing restrictions would not limit the ability of the
institution to change the specific terms and conditions of a particular
grandfathered product or service. The Conference Report indicates a legislative
intent not to lock into place the specific terms or conditions of a grandfathered
product or service. Conference Report at 126. For example, a nonbank bank
marketing a three-year, $5,000 certificate of deposit through an affiliate
under the exemption could offer a one-year $2,000 certificate of deposit
with a different interest rate after the grandfather date. See footnote
11 above. Modifications that alter the type of product, however, are not
permitted. Thus, a nonbank bank that marketed through affiliates on March
5, 1987, only certificates of deposit could not commence marketing MMDA's
or NOW accounts after the grandfather date.
(ii) General changes in the character of the
product or service as the result of market or technological innovation
are similarly permitted to the extent that they do not transform a grandfathered
product into a new product. Thus, an unsecured line of credit could not
be modified to include a lien on the borrower's residence without becoming
a new product.
(6) Meaning of offer or market. In the Board's
opinion, the terms offer or market in the cross-marketing restrictions
refer to the presentation to a customer of an institution's products or
service through any type of program, including telemarketing, advertising
brochures, direct mailing, personal solicitation, customer referrals, or
joint-marketing agreements or presentations. An institution must have offered
or actually marketed the product or service on March 5 or shortly before
that date (as discussed above) to qualify for the grandfather privilege.
Thus, if the cross-marketing program was in the planning stage on March
5, 1987, the program would not quality for grandfather treatment under
CEBA.
(7) Limitations on cross-marketing to in the
same manner. (i) The cross-marketing restriction in section 4(f)(3) contains
a grandfather provision that permits products or services that would otherwise
be prohibited from being offered or marketed under the provision to continue
to be offered or marketed by a particular entity if the products or services
were being so offered or marketed as of March 5, 1987, but ``only in the
same manner in which they were being offered or marketed as of that date.''
Thus, to qualify for the grandfather provision, the manner of offering
or marketing the otherwise prohibited product or service must remain the
same as on the grandfather date.
(ii) In interpreting this provision, the Board
notes that Congress designed the joint-marketing restrictions to prevent
the significant risk to the public posed by the conduct of such activities
by insured banks affiliated with companies engaged in general commerce,
to ensure objectivity in the credit-granting process and to ``minimize
the unfair competitive advantage that grandfathered commercial companies
owning nonbank banks might otherwise engage over regulated bank holding
companies and our competing commercial companies that have no subsidiary
bank.'' Conference Report at 125-126. The Board believes that determinations
regarding the manner of cross-marketing of a particular product or service
may best be accomplished by applying the limitation to the particular facts
in each case consistent with the stated purpose of this provision of CEBA
and the general principle that grandfather restrictions and exceptions
to general prohibitions must be narrowly construed in order to prevent
the exception from nullifying the rule. Essentially, as in the scope of
the term ``product or service'', the guiding principle of Congressional
intent with respect to this term is to permit only the continuation of
the specific types of cross-marketing activity that were undertaken as
of March 5, 1987.
(8) Eligibility for cross-marketing grandfather
exemption. The Conference Report also clarifies that entitlement to an
exemption to continue to cross-market products and services otherwise prohibited
by the statute applies only to the specific company that was engaged in
the activity as of March 5, 1987. Conference Report at 126. Thus, an affiliate
that was not engaged in cross-marketing products or services as of the
grandfather date may not commence these activities under the exemption
even if such activities were being conducted by another affiliate. Id.;
see also S. Rep. No. 100-19 at 33-34.
(e) Eligibility for grandfathered nonbank
bank status. In reviewing the reports required by CEBA, the Board notes
that a number of institutions that had not commenced business operations
on August 10, 1987, the date of enactment of CEBA, claimed grandfather
privileges under section 4(f)(3) of CEBA. To qualify for grandfather privileges
under section 4(f)(3), the institution must have ``bec[o]me a bank as a
result of the enactment of [CEBA]'' and must have been controlled by a
nonbanking company on March 5, 1987. 12 U.S.C. 1843(f)(1)(A). An institution
that did not have FDIC insurance on August 10, 1987, and that did not accept
demand deposits or transaction accounts or engage in the business of commercial
lending on that date, would not have become a bank as a result of enactment
of CEBA. Thus, institutions that had not commenced operations on August
10, 1987, could not qualify for grandfather privileges under section 4(f)(3)
of CEBA. This view is supported by the activity limitations of section
4(f)(3), which, as noted, limit the activities of grandfathered nonbank
banks to those in which they were lawfully engaged as of March 5, 1987.
A nonbank bank that had not commenced conducting business activities on
March 5, 1987, could not after enactment of CEBA engage in any activities
under this provision.
BankersOnline is a free service made possible by the generous support of our advertisers and sponsors. Advertisers and sponsors are not responsible for site content. Please help us keep BankersOnline FREE to all banking professionals. Support our advertisers and sponsors by clicking through to learn more about their products and services.