Title 12 › Chapter 17— BANK HOLDING COMPANIES › § 1851
Banks and similar firms must not do two main things: trade for their own short‑term profit (proprietary trading) or buy, keep, or sponsor hedge funds or private equity funds. Companies that are not banks but are supervised by the Federal Reserve and do those things will face extra capital and activity limits like banks. The Financial Stability Oversight Council had to study how to put these rules into effect within 6 months after July 21, 2010, and the federal banking agencies, the SEC, and the CFTC had to write coordinated rules within 9 months after that study. The rules take effect either 12 months after final rules are issued or 2 years after July 21, 2010, whichever comes first. Firms must come into compliance within 2 years after the rules take effect (the Board can extend that deadline, up to 3 years total). The Board may grant one special extension up to 5 years for contracts in effect on May 1, 2010. Some activities are still allowed under tight limits: buying U.S., state, and certain agency obligations; limited underwriting or market‑making to meet near‑term client demand; hedging to reduce risk; trading for customers; certain small‑business and public‑welfare investments; insurance company general‑account investing under state law; organizing funds only for customers when the bank provides real fiduciary or advisory services and keeps only very small ownership stakes; and certain foreign‑only trading or fund ownership. Banks that set up or advise funds must reduce their initial stake to no more than 3 percent of the fund within 1 year and keep all such stakes below 3 percent of the bank’s Tier 1 capital. Regulators must set rules for controls, records, extra capital, and may order a firm to stop or sell investments if they find evasion. Key terms: banking entity = an insured bank or a company that controls one (excluding small or trust‑only institutions); hedge fund/private equity fund = funds that would be investment companies except for certain exemptions; proprietary trading = trading as principal to profit from short‑term price moves in securities, derivatives, futures, or similar instruments; sponsor = acting as general partner, selecting or controlling a fund’s managers, or sharing the same name; illiquid fund = a fund as of May 1, 2010 that mainly holds hard‑to‑sell assets; nonbank financial company supervised by the Board = a nonbank firm overseen by the Federal Reserve.
Full Legal Text
Banks and Banking — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
12 U.S.C. § 1851
Title 12 — Banks and Banking
Last Updated
Apr 3, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60