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Federal or State law, (2) chartered under Federal or State law, and
(3) a "similar institution".10
All three institutions (BCCI, S.A., its IOMB, and its Los
Angeles agency office) do not meet the statutory requirements of a
"similar institution". First, neither BCCI, S.A. nor its IOMB was
supervised under Federal or State law. ("Supervise" refers to a
comprehensive scheme of regulation. See, e.g., Cal. Fin. Code,
secs. 99-3900 (1989). BCCI, S.A. was initially supervised by the
Luxembourg Monetary Institute. The college of regulators was
subsequently established, but the United States was specifically
excluded from this group. It appears that the IOMB of BCCI, S.A.
was most likely supervised under British law.)
At the time BCCI, S.A. was operating its agency offices in the
United States, the Federal Reserve Board had limited supervisory
authority over these operations. The Federal Reserve Board did not
have the authority to grant or deny permission to a foreign bank to
do business in the United States or to obtain and review the
records of a foreign bank's worldwide operations.11 Moreover,
10 The legislative history of sec. 165(l) does not shed
light on the meaning of sec. 165(l)(3)(D).
11 These were among the powers that Congress later granted
to the Federal Reserve Board in the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation Improvement Act of 1991, Pub. L. 102-242, sec. 202,
(continued...)
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