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1 (April 27, 2005)

handle is hein.crs/crsaiix0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21680
Updated April 27, 2005
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Affiliates in Banking, Finance, and
Commerce: Development and
Regulatory Background
William D. Jackson
Specialist in Financial Institutions
Government and Finance Division
Summary
The proliferation of corporate affiliates in banking, finance, and commerce has
figured in discussion of several policy issues, including how to protect against (1) losses
incurred by affiliated companies; (2) anticompetitive tying of bank and nonbank
financial services; and (3) misuse of financial data of consumers. The Gramm-Leach-
Bliley Act in 1999 greatly increased affiliations. Sharing of consumer financial
information among affiliates, one issue in reauthorization of the Fair Credit Reporting
Act, requires considerable attention to affiliations. Proposed Community Reinvestment
Act regulations involve affiliates of banks. Comptroller of the Currency efforts to bring
subsidiaries of national banks under federal banking law, preempting than state laws,
also involve affiliations. This report outlines the nature and evolution of affiliates,
primarily from a regulatory perspective. It provides background for discussing financial
issues involving corporate affiliates and will be updated as events warrant.
Background and Analysis
Conducting nonbanking activities directly within a bank has generally been viewed
as a threat to the integrity of the bank. Periodically in American financial history, and in
other nations today, bank diversification into nonbanking financial and commercial
business has emerged.! Safety problems often followed because of a tendency for
entrepreneurs to combine captive sources of (bank) funds with their own (commercial)
uses of funds, without regard for normal due diligence. By forcing nonbanking activities
into a separately capitalized, separately run company associated with a bank,
policymakers sought to lessen the risks that self-funding may pose to banks, to deposit
1 Joseph G. Haubrich and Joao A. C. Santos, Alternative Forms of Mixing Banking with
Commerce: Evidence from American History, Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments,
vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 121-164.
Congressional Research Service 4- The Library of Congress

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