I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4926
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
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 DENY-
ING NATIONAL TREATMENT TO UNITED STATES BANK-
ING ORGANIZATIONS.—The Secretary of the Treasury
shall identify, after consultation with any appropriate Fed-
eral banking agency, the extent to which foreign countries
may be denying national treatment to United States bank-
ing organizations—
(1) based on information relating to banking in
the most recent report under section 3602 of the
Omnibus 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
ADVERSE EFFECT.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall assess,
after consultation with any appropriate Federal
banking agency, whether the possible denial of na-
tional treatment to United States banking organiza-
tions by a foreign country identified under sub-
section (a) may be having a significant adverse ef-
fect 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
services, and the extent to which United States
banking organizations operate or seek to oper-
ate in those markets.
(B) The importance of operations by
United States banking organizations in the for-
eign country to the export of goods and services
by United States firms to such country.
(C) The extent to which the foreign coun-
try provides in advance to United States bank-
ing organizations a written draft of any
measure of general application that the country
proposes to adopt, such as regulations, guide-
lines, or other policies regarding new products
and services, in order to allow an opportunity
for such organizations to comment on the meas-
ure and for such comments to be taken into ac-
count 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
making any assessment under paragraph (1), the
Secretary may solicit comments concerning the ef-
fect of the possible denial of national treatment on
United States banking organizations from interested
parties.
(c) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary shall publish a no-
tice in the Federal Register of—
(1) any assessment made under paragraph (1)
with respect to any country; and
(2) any change made with respect to any as-
sessment under such paragraph which was pre-
viously published in the Federal Register.
(d) DEFINITIONS.—The following definitions shall
apply for purposes of this section:
(1) APPROPRIATE
FEDERAL
BANKING
AGEN-
CY.—The term ‘‘appropriate Federal banking agen-
cy’’ has the same meaning as in section 3(q) of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
(2) BANKING ORGANIZATION.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘banking or-
ganization’’ means any bank, any bank holding
company (including any company required to
file reports pursuant to section 4(f)(6) of the
Bank Holding Company Act of 1956), and any
savings and loan holding company (as such
term is defined in section 10(a)(1)(D) of the
Home Owners’ Loan Act).
(B) BANKING
TERMS.—For purposes of
this paragraph, the terms ‘‘bank’’ and ‘‘bank
holding company’’ have the same meaning as in
section 2 of the Bank Holding Company Act of
1956.
(3) NATIONAL
TREATMENT.—The term ‘‘na-
tional treatment’’ means, with respect to any foreign
country, treatment that offers United States bank-
ing organizations the same competitive opportunities
(including effective market access) in such country
as are available to the foreign country’s domestic
banking organizations in like circumstances.
(4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of the Treasury.
SEC. 3. APPLICATIONS BY FOREIGN BANKS.
(a) APPLICATIONS
UNDER
THE
INTERNATIONAL
BANKING ACT
OF 1978.—Section 7(d) of the Inter-
national Banking Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 3105(d)) is
amended by adding at the end the following new para-
graph:
‘‘(6) ADDITIONAL
STANDARD.—In acting on
any application under paragraph (1), the Board
shall take into account whether the Secretary of the
Treasury has made an assessment, in accordance
with section 2(b) of the National Treatment in
Banking Act of 1994, that the possible denial of na-
tional treatment to United States banking organiza-
tions by the foreign bank’s home country identified
under section 2(a) of such Act may be having a sig-
nificant adverse effect on such organizations.’’.
(b) APPLICATIONS UNDER
THE BANK HOLDING
COMPANY ACT OF 1956.—Section 5 of the Bank Holding
Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1844) is amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
‘‘(g) APPLICATIONS BY A FOREIGN BANK.—In con-
sidering any application or notice under section 3 or 4 by
any foreign bank (as defined in section 1(b) of the Inter-
national Banking Act of 1978), the Board shall take into
account whether the Secretary of the Treasury has made
an assessment, in accordance with section 2(b) of the Na-
tional Treatment in Banking Act of 1994, that the pos-
sible denial of national treatment to United States bank-
ing organizations by the foreign bank’s home country
identified under section 2(a) of such Act may be having
a significant adverse effect on such organizations.’’.
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