And as foreign banking organizations, in a continuing expansion of their presence in the United States, have established branches of their home country banking entities and acquired regional and large U.S. banks that are separate legal entities, they, too have become subject to additional supervision.
And the emergence of new forms of financial instruments has also affected the corporate structure, in that entities established to transfer and fund assets may or may not be consolidated for accounting purposes, depending on their structure. In short, the structure of large financial firms has become much more complex and varied over time and is increasingly reflecting the business strategy of the organization.