A bank holding company is a company that controls one or more

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

s, but does not necessarily engage in banking itself. The compound bancorp (''banc''/''bank'' + '' corp ration') is often used to refer to these companies as well.

United States

In the United States, a bank holding company, as provided by the

Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (, ''et seq.'') is a United States Act of Congress that regulates the actions of bank holding companies. The original law (subsequently amended), specified that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors must ap ...

( '' et seq.''), is broadly defined as "any company that has control over a bank". All bank holding companies in the US are required to register with the Board of Governors of the

Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

Regulation

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, under Regulation Y () has responsibility for regulating and supervising bank holding company activities, such as establishing capital standards, approving mergers and acquisitions and inspecting the operations of such companies. This authority applies even though a bank owned by a holding company may be under the primary supervision of the

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all natio ...

or the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cre ...

Bank holding company status

Becoming a bank holding company makes it easier for the firm to raise capital than as a traditional bank. The holding company can assume debt of

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ...

s on a tax free basis, borrow money, acquire other banks and non-bank entities more easily, and issue

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

with greater regulatory ease. It also has a greater legal authority to conduct share repurchases of its own stock. The downside includes responding to additional regulatory authorities, especially if there are more than 2,000 shareholders (note: prior to the Jobs Act or Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, the shareholder number was 300), at which point the bank holding company is forced to register with the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against mark ...

. There are also added expenses of operating with an extra layer of administration.

2008 credit crisis

As a result of the global financial crisis of 2008, many traditional investment banks and finance corporations such as Goldman Sachs,

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the f ...

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

, CIT Group and GMAC (now Ally Financial) converted to bank holding companies to gain access to the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

's credit facilities.

References

External links