Dictionary of Banking Terms: one-bank holding company
one-bank holding company
corporation owning at least 25% of the voting stock of a commercial bank. An amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act, enacted by Congress in 1970, extended Federal Reserve supervision of bank holding companies to corporations owning only one bank. Formation of the one-bank holding companies, beginning in the late 1960s, gave rise to the leveraged holding company: commercial banks were no longer dependent largely on depositors' funds to underwrite loans and other investments. Bank holding companies are allowed to issue commercial paper in capital markets.
The 1970 law also required nonbank commercial corporations to divest their banking subsidiaries.
