Bank Holding Companies and Change in Bank Control (Regulation Y), 62 Fed. Reg. 9290 (Feb. 28, 1997)

The Board has adopted comprehensive amendments to Regulation Y that improve the competitiveness of bank holding companies by eliminating unnecessary regulatory burden and operating restrictions, and by streamlining the application/notice process. Among other revisions, the final rule incorporates a streamlined and expedited review process for bank acquisition proposals by well-run bank holding companies with a number of modifications intended to broaden and improve public notice of bank acquisition proposals, to assure that the regulatory filing is made well within the public comment period, and to better assure that proposals reviewed under the streamlined procedures do not raise issues under the statutory factors in the Bank Holding Company Act. 

The final rule also implements the changes enacted in the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 that eliminate certain notice and approval requirements and streamline others that involve nonbanking proposals by well-run bank holding companies. The final rule also includes a reorganized and expanded regulatory list of permissible nonbanking activities and removes a number of restrictions on those activities that are outmoded, have been superseded by Board order or do not apply to insured banks that conduct the same activity. 

In addition, the final rule incorporates several amendments to the tying restrictions, including removal of the regulatory extension of those restrictions to bank holding companies and their nonbank subsidiaries. A number of other changes have also been included to eliminate unnecessary regulatory burden and to streamline and modernize Regulation Y, including changes to the provisions implementing the Change in Bank Control Act and section 914 of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989.