BANK HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 1956 (70 Stat. 133; 12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) AN ACT To define bank holding companies, control their future expansion, and require divestment of their nonbanking interests. Be is enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Bank Holding Company Act of 1956". DEFINITIONS SEC. 2. [12 U.S.C. 1841] (a)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (5) of this subsection, "bank holding company" means any company which has control over any bank or over any company that is or becomes a bank holding company by virtue of this Act. (2) Any company has control over a bank or over any company if (A) the company directly or indirectly or acting through one or more other persons owns, controls, or has power to vote 25 per centum or more of any class of voting securities of the bank or company; (B) the company controls in any manner the election of a majority of the directors or trustees of the bank or company; or (C) the Board determines, after notice and opportunity for hearing, that the company directly or indirectly exercises a controlling influence over the management or policies of the bank or company. (3) For the purposes of any proceeding under paragraph (2)(C) of this subsection, there is a presumption that any company which directly or indirectly owns, controls, or has power to vote less than 5 per centum of any class of voting securities of a given bank or company does not have control over that bank or company. (4) In any administrative or judicial proceeding under this Act, other than a proceeding under paragraph (2)(C) of this subsection, a company may not be held to have had control over any given bank or company at any given time unless that company, at the time in question, directly or indirectly owned, controlled, or had power to vote 5 per centum or more of any class of voting securities of the bank or company, or had already been found to have control in a proceeding under paragraph (2)(C). (5) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection (A) No bank and no company owning or controlling voting shares of a bank is a bank holding company by virtue of its ownership or control of shares in a fiduciary capacity, except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (g) of this section. For the purpose of the preceding sentence, bank shares shall not be deemed to have been acquired in a fiduciary capacity if the acquiring bank or company has sole discretionary authority to exercise voting rights with respect thereto; except that this limitation is applicable in the case of a bank or company acquiring such shares prior to the date of enactment of the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 only if the bank or company has the right consistent with its obligations under the instrument, agreement, or other arrangement establishing the fidiciary relationship to divest itself of such voting rights and fails to exercise that right to divest within a reasonable period not to exceed one year after the date of enactment of the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970. (B) No company is a bank holding company by virtue of its ownership or control of shares acquired by it in connection with its underwriting of securities if such shares are held only for such period of time as will permit the sale thereof on a reasonable basis. (C) No company formed for the sole purpose of participating in a proxy solicitation is a bank holding company by virtue of its control of voting rights of shares acquired in the course of such solicitation. (D) No company is a bank holding company by virtue of its ownership or control of shares acquired in securing or collecting a debt previously contracted in good faith, until two years after the date of acquisition. The Board is authorized upon application by a company to extend, from time to time for not more than one year at a time, the two-year period referred to herein for disposing of any shares acquired by a company in the regular course of securing or collecting a debt previously contracted in good faith, if, in the Board's judgment, such an extension would not be detrimental to the public interest, but no such extension shall in the aggregate exceed three years. (E) No company is a bank holding company by virtue of its ownership or control of any State-chartered bank or trust company which (i) is wholly owned by 1 or more thrift institutions or savings banks; and (ii) is restricted to accepting (I) deposits from thrift institutions or savings banks; (II) deposits arising out of the corporate business of the thrift institutions or savings banks that own the bank or trust company; or (III) deposits of public moneys. (F) No trust company or mutual savings bank which is an insured bank under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act is a bank holding company by virtue of its direct or indirect ownership or control of one bank located in the same State, if (i) such ownership or control existed on the date of enactment of the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 and is specifically authorized by applicable State law, and (ii) the trust company or mutual savings bank does not after that date acquire an interest in any company that, together with any other interest it holds in that company, will exceed 5 per centum of any class of the voting shares of that company, except that this limitation shall not be applicable to investments of the trust company or mutual savings bank, direct and indirect, which are otherwise in accordance with the limitations applicable to national banks under section 5136 of the Revised Statutes. (12 U.S.C. 24) (6) For the purposes of this Act, any successor to a bank holding company shall be deemed to be a bank holding company from the date on which the predecessor company became a bank holding company. (b) "Company" means any corporation, partnership, business trust, association, or similar organization, or any other trust unless by its terms it must terminate within twenty-five years or not later than twenty-one years and ten months after the death of individuals living on the effective date of the trust, but shall not include any corporation the majority of the shares of which are owned by the United States or by any State, and shall not include a qualified family partnership. "Company covered in 1970" means a company which becomes a bank holding company as a result of the enactment of the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 and which would have been a bank holding company on June 30, 1968, if those amendments had been enacted on that date. (c) BANK DEFINED.-For purposes of this Act (1) IN GENERAL.-Except as provided in paragraph (2), the term "bank" means any of the following: (A) An insured bank as defined in section 3(h) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. (B) An institution organized under the laws of the United States, any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, any territory of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, or the Virgin Islands which both (i) accepts demand deposits or deposits that the depositor may withdraw by check or similar means for payment to third parties or others; and (ii) is engaged in the business of making commercial loans. (2) EXCEPTIONS.-The term "bank" does not include any of the following: (A) A foreign bank which would be a bank within the meaning of paragraph (1) solely because such bank has an insured or uninsured branch in the United States. (j)). (B) An insured institution (as defined in subsection (C) An organization that does not do business in the United States except as an incident to its activities outside the United States. (D) An institution that functions solely in a trust or fiduciary capacity, if— (i) all or substantially all of the deposits of such institution are in trust funds and are received in a bona fide fiduciary capacity; (ii) no deposits of such institution which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation |