With respect to financial institutions, continuing pressures have meant that the banking industry is faced with intense and abiding concerns about its powers, activities, practices and procedures.  Legislative proposals have the potential to affect the way in which members of the financial community are able to conduct their daily business and prepare for future activities.

The Internet and the World Wide Web are also attracting increasing attention from federal and state legislators, and from their counterparts in other countries, who seek ways to share in the bounty that is emerging and expected in the future.

While specific proposals may change from year to year, there are several major areas of legislation in which activity may be expected:

• Proposals to expand permissible non-banking activities for bank holding companies and operating subsidiaries, and to further erode the wall erected in 1933 between the banking and securities industries.

• In the area of interstate banking, both the Congress and state legislatures—reflecting the pressures of their constituencies—are re-examining existing laws.

• Consumer-conscious legislators are listening to requests for measures that could affect the powers and profitability of financial institutions in the future.

• Legislators will also be considering a myriad of proposals designed to enhance and retain public confidence in U.S. financial institutions.

• Legislative proposals to tax and regulate the Web are receiving ever-increasing attention in Congress and state legislatures, as millions of people conduct all kinds of transactions in Cyberspace and reap the rewards of doing so.  It has been estimated that there are 30,000 taxing authorities in the U.S. alone which have the ability to levy taxes or regulate Internet commerce in one form or another, and would love to do so.

We are successful practitioners of the tactics required for effective action as these and other issues are fought on the federal and state legislative battlefields.

While serving as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and thereafter, Timothy D. Naegele authored, inter alia, the Anti-Tying Provision of the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 (see our Published Articles on the subject), the "Brooke Amendment" relating to public housing, and the national "housing allowance" program.  Also, he wrote the financial institutions laws of the State of Maine, which now appear as Title 9-B of the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated, and he served as special consultant to the State of California on matters pertaining to financial institutions, including legislative matters.

The Law Firm can reach and influence legislatures nationwide.  Our services include the research and preparation of testimony for clients who appear before congressional committees and state legislatures; serving as their liaison to staff aides; drafting suggested language for inclusion in legislation under consideration; and analyzing and monitoring the progress of bills, resolutions, amendments and conference reports as they wind their way through the legislative process.

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