AMENDMENTS TO THE BANK HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 1956.

SEC. 205. AMENDMENTS TO THE BANK HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 1956. (a) Exception to Nonbanking Prohibitions.— Section 2(h) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841(h)) is amended by striking out paragraph (2) and by adding after paragraph (1) the following new paragraphs: “(2) Except as provided in paragraph (3), the prohibitions of section 4 of this Act shall not apply to shares of any company organized under the laws of a foreign country (or to shares held by such company in any company engaged in the same general line of business as the investor company or in a business related to the business of the investor company) that is principally engaged in business outside the United States if such shares are held or acquired by a bank holding company organized under the laws of a foreign country that is principally engaged in the banking business outside the United States. For the purpose of this subsection, the 101 STAT. 585term ‘section 2(h)(2) company’ means any company whose shares are held pursuant to this paragraph. “(3) Nothing in paragraph (2) authorizes a section 2(h)(2) company to engage in (or acquire or hold more than 5 percent of the outstanding shares of any class of voting securities of a company engaged in) any banking, securities, insurance, or other financial activities, as defined by the Board, in the United States. This paragraph does not prohibit a section 2(h)(2) company from holding shares that were lawfully acquired before the date of enactment of the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987. “(4) No domestic office or subsidiary of a bank holding company or subsidiary thereof holding shares of a section 2(h)(2) company may extend credit to a domestic office or subsidiary of such section 2(h)(2) company on terms more favorable than those afforded similar borrowers in the United States. “(5) No domestic banking office or bank subsidiary of a bank holding company that controls a section 2(h)(2) company may offer or market products or services of such section 2(h)(2) company, or permit its products or services to be offered or marketed by or through such section 2(h)(2) company, unless such products or services were being so offered or marketed as of March 5, 1987, and then only in the same manner in which they were being offered or marketed as of that date.”.