Which U.S. law of 1956 restricted bank holding companies from operating across state lines?

The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 restricted bank holding companies from operating across state lines. Congress passed the law to regulate companies that owned or controlled banks and to limit the geographic and business expansion of banking groups.

The act required bank holding companies to register with the Federal Reserve and generally prohibited them from owning nonbank businesses unrelated to banking. It also limited interstate banking, although later amendments created important exceptions.

The law was substantially changed by the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 and ultimately weakened by the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994. It should not be confused with the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking in 1933.