Union Calendar No. 404
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4926
[Report No. 103–727]
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to identify
foreign countries which may be denying national
treatment to United States banking organiza-
tions and to assess whether any such denial may
be having a significant adverse effect on such or-
ganizations, and to require Federal banking
agencies to take such assessments into account in
considering applications by foreign banks under
the International Banking Act of 1978 and the
Bank Holding Company Act of 1956.
SEPTEMBER 19, 1994
Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee
of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and or-
dered to be printed
IB
Union Calendar No. 404
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4926
[Report No. 103–727]
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to identify foreign countries which
may be denying national treatment to United States banking organiza-
tions and to assess whether any such denial may be having a significant
adverse effect on such organizations, and to require Federal banking
agencies to take such assessments into account in considering applica-
tions by foreign banks under the International Banking Act of 1978
and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AUGUST 9, 1994
Mr. SCHUMER (for himself and Mr. LEACH) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs
SEPTEMBER 19, 1994
Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House
on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on August 9, 1994]
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to identify foreign
countries which may be denying national treatment to
United States banking organizations and to assess
whether any such denial may be having a significant
adverse effect on such organizations, and to require Fed-
eral banking agencies to take such assessments into ac-
count in considering applications by foreign banks under
the International Banking Act of 1978 and the Bank
Holding Company Act of 1956.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Treatment in
Banking Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. FAILURE TO ACCORD NATIONAL TREATMENT TO
UNITED STATES BANKING ORGANIZATIONS.
(a) IDENTIFYING COUNTRIES THAT MAY BE DENYING
NATIONAL TREATMENT TO UNITED STATES BANKING OR-
GANIZATIONS.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall iden-
tify, after consultation with the Federal banking agencies,
the extent to which foreign countries may be denying na-
tional treatment to United States banking organizations—
(1) based on information relating to banking in
the most recent report under section 3602 of the Om-
nibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (or the
most recent update of such report); or
(2) based on more recent information that the
Secretary considers appropriate.
(b) ASSESSING WHETHER POSSIBLE DENIAL OF NA-
TIONAL TREATMENT MAY BE HAVING A SIGNIFICANT AD-
VERSE EFFECT.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary shall assess,
after consultation with the Federal banking agencies,
whether the possible denial of national treatment to
United States banking organizations by a foreign
country identified under subsection (a) may be hav-
ing a significant adverse effect on such organizations.
(2) FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED.—In making
any assessment under paragraph (1), the Secretary
shall consider appropriate factors, including the fol-
lowing:
(A) The extent of United States trade with
and investment in the foreign country, the size
of the foreign country’s markets for banking serv-
ices, and the extent to which United States bank-
ing organizations operate or seek to operate in
those markets.
(B) The importance of operations by United
States banking organizations in the foreign
country to the export of goods and services by
United States firms to such country.
(C) The extent to which the foreign country
provides in advance to United States banking
organizations a written draft of any measure of
general application that the country proposes to
adopt, such as regulations, guidelines, or other
policies regarding new products and services, in
order to allow an opportunity for such organiza-
tions to comment on the measure and for such
comments to be taken into account by the foreign
country.
(D) The extent to which the foreign coun-
try—
(i) makes available, in writing, to
United States banking organizations the
foreign country’s requirements for complet-
ing any application relating to the provi-
sion of financial services by any such orga-
nization;
(ii) applies published, objective stand-
ards and criteria in evaluating any such
application from any United States bank-
ing organization; and
(iii) renders administrative decisions
relating to any such application within a
reasonable period of time.
(3) SOLICITATION OF COMMENTS.—Before mak-
ing any assessment under paragraph (1), the Sec-
retary may solicit comments concerning the effect of
the possible denial of national treatment on United
States banking organizations from interested parties.