[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4926 Introduced in House (IH)]

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 
  organizations 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 applications 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 
   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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 Organizations.--The Secretary of the Treasury 
shall identify, after consultation with any appropriate Federal banking 
agency, the extent to which foreign countries may be denying national 
treatment to United States banking 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 National 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 national treatment to United 
        States banking organizations by a foreign country identified 
        under subsection (a) may be having 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 following:
                    (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 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 organizations 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 country--
                            (i) makes available, in writing, to United 
                        States banking organizations the foreign 
                        country's requirements for completing any 
                        application relating to the provision of 
                        financial services by any such organization;
                            (ii) applies published, objective standards 
                        and criteria in evaluating any such application 
                        from any United States banking 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 effect of the possible denial of national 
        treatment on United States banking organizations from 
        interested parties.
    (c) Publication.--The Secretary shall publish a notice 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 assessment under 
        such paragraph which was previously published in the Federal 
        Register.
    (d) Definitions.--The following definitions shall apply for 
purposes of this section:
            (1) Appropriate federal banking agency.--The term 
        ``appropriate Federal banking agency'' has the same meaning as 
        in section 3(q) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
            (2) Banking organization.--
                    (A) In general.--The term ``banking organization'' 
                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 ``national treatment'' 
        means, with respect to any foreign country, treatment that 
        offers United States banking 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 International Banking Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 
3105(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(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 national 
        treatment to United States banking 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.''.
    (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 considering any 
application or notice under section 3 or 4 by any foreign bank (as 
defined in section 1(b) of the International 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 National 
Treatment in Banking Act of 1994, that the possible denial of national 
treatment to United States banking 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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