II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 356 

To amend the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 and the Revised Statutes 

of the United States to prohibit financial holding companies and national 

banks from engaging, directly or indirectly, in real estate brokerage 

or real estate management activities, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 29, 2009 

Mrs. BOXER (for herself and Mr. BURR) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 and 

the Revised Statutes of the United States to prohibit 

financial holding companies and national banks from engaging, directly or indirectly, in real estate brokerage 

or real estate management activities, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Choice in 

5 Real Estate Act’’. 


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•S 356 IS

1 SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION THAT REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE 

2 AND MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES ARE NOT 

3 BANKING OR FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES. 

4 (a) BANK HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 1956.—Sec5 tion 4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 

6 U.S.C. 1843(k)) is amended by adding at the end the fol7 lowing new paragraph: 

8 ‘‘(8) REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE AND REAL ES9 TATE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES.— 

10 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Board may not 

11 determine that real estate brokerage activity or 

12 real estate management activity is an activity 

13 that is financial in nature, is incidental to any 

14 financial activity, or is complementary to a fi15 nancial activity. 

16 ‘‘(B) REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE ACTIVITY

17 DEFINED.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 

18 term ‘real estate brokerage activity’ means any 

19 activity that involves offering or providing real 

20 estate brokerage services to the public, includ21 ing— 

22 ‘‘(i) acting as an agent for a buyer, 

23 seller, lessor, or lessee of real property; 

24 ‘‘(ii) listing or advertising real prop25 erty for sale, purchase, lease, rental, or ex26 change; 


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1 ‘‘(iii) providing advice in connection 

2 with the sale, purchase, lease, rental, or 

3 exchange of real property; 

4 ‘‘(iv) bringing together parties inter5 ested in the sale, purchase, lease, rental, or 

6 exchange of real property; 

7 ‘‘(v) negotiating, on behalf of any 

8 party, any portion of a contract relating to 

9 the sale, purchase, lease, rental, or ex10 change of real property (other than in con11 nection with providing financing with re12 spect to any such transaction); 

13 ‘‘(vi) engaging in any activity for 

14 which a person engaged in the activity is 

15 required to be registered or licensed as a 

16 real estate agent or broker under any ap17 plicable law; and 

18 ‘‘(vii) offering to engage in any activ19 ity, or act in any capacity, described in 

20 this subparagraph. 

21 ‘‘(C) REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT ACTIV22 ITY DEFINED.—For purposes of this paragraph, 

23 the term ‘real estate management activity’ 

24 means any activity that involves offering or proVerDate Nov 24 2008 04:13 Jan 30, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S356.IS S356

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1 viding real estate management services to the 

2 public, including— 

3 ‘‘(i) procuring any tenant or lessee for 

4 any real property; 

5 ‘‘(ii) negotiating leases of real prop6 erty; 

7 ‘‘(iii) maintaining security deposits on 

8 behalf of any tenant or lessor of real prop9 erty (other than as a depository institution 

10 for any person providing real estate man11 agement services for any tenant or lessor 

12 of real property); 

13 ‘‘(iv) billing and collecting rental pay14 ments with respect to real property or pro15 viding periodic accounting for such pay16 ments; 

17 ‘‘(v) making principal, interest, insur18 ance, tax, or utility payments with respect 

19 to real property (other than as a deposi20 tory institution or other financial institu21 tion on behalf of, and at the direction of, 

22 an account holder at the institution); 

23 ‘‘(vi) overseeing the inspection, main24 tenance, and upkeep of real property, gen25 erally; and 


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1 ‘‘(vii) offering to engage in any activ2 ity, or act in any capacity, described in 

3 this subparagraph. 

4 ‘‘(D) EXCEPTION FOR COMPANY PROP5 ERTY.—This paragraph shall not apply to an 

6 activity of a bank holding company or any affil7 iate of such company that directly relates to 

8 managing any real property owned by such 

9 company or affiliate, or the purchase, sale, or 

10 lease of property owned, or to be used or occu11 pied, by such company or affiliate. 

12 ‘‘(E) CURRENT ACTIVITIES NOT AF13 FECTED.—No provision of this paragraph, or 

14 any determination made pursuant to any such 

15 provision, may be construed as prohibiting, re16 stricting, altering, or otherwise affecting the 

17 right, power, or ability of any financial holding 

18 company to engage in any activity, or acquire 

19 or retain the shares of any company engaged in 

20 an activity, if engaging in such activity, or ac21 quiring or retaining such shares, was author22 ized for financial holding companies on Decem23 ber 6, 2001.’’. 

24 (b) REVISED STATUTES OF THE UNITED STATES.— 

25 Section 5136A(b) of the Revised Statutes of the United 


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1 States (12 U.S.C. 24a(b)) is amended by adding at the 

2 end the following new paragraph: 

3 ‘‘(4) REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE AND REAL ES4 TATE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may 

6 not determine that real estate brokerage activ7 ity or real estate management activity is an ac8 tivity that is financial in nature, is incidental to 

9 any financial activity, or is complementary to a 

10 financial activity. 

11 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 

12 paragraph, the terms ‘real estate brokerage ac13 tivity’ and ‘real estate management activity’ 

14 have the same meanings as in section 4(k)(8) of 

15 the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956. 

16 ‘‘(C) EXCEPTION FOR COMPANY PROP17 ERTY.—This paragraph shall not apply to an 

18 activity of a national bank, or a subsidiary of 

19 a national bank, that directly relates to man20 aging any real property owned by such bank or 

21 subsidiary, or the purchase, sale, or lease of 

22 property owned, or to be owned, by such bank 

23 or subsidiary. 

24 ‘‘(D) CURRENT ACTIVITIES NOT AF25 FECTED.—No provision of this paragraph, or 


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1 any determination made pursuant to any such 

2 provision, may be construed as prohibiting, re3 stricting, altering, or otherwise affecting the 

4 right, power, or ability of any national bank, or 

5 a subsidiary of a national bank, to engage in 

6 any activity, or acquire or retain the shares of 

7 any company engaged in an activity, if engag8 ing in such activity, or acquiring or retaining 

9 such shares, was authorized for national banks, 

10 or subsidiaries of national banks, on December 

11 6, 2001.’’. 

Æ 


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