Under the statutory scheme established by Congress, permissible U.S. structures include cross-border branching and direct and indirect subsidiaries, provided that they operate in a safe and sound manner.3 U.S. law also allows well-managed and well-capitalized foreign banks to conduct a wide range of bank and nonbank activities in the United States under conditions comparable to those applied to U.S. banking organizations.
Still, it is worth noting that even as there has been continuity in this basic policy, U.S. regulation of foreign banks has evolved over the years in response to changes in the extent and nature of foreign bank activities. Let me mention two examples.