To some extent, this emphasis on the bank rather than the nonbank activities of the banking organization was prompted by, or permitted by, management techniques that tended not to treat risk-taking in integrated fashion across the entire holding company.
The regulators’ main concern was the bank, and bank safety could be analyzed more or less remotely and distinctly from the nonbank activities of the banking organization. More recently, the focus of supervision of holding companies by the Federal Reserve is being modified to parallel the changes in the management of banking companies.