text: *Bank Holding Companies and Financial Holding Companies*
  
  Traditionally, the activities of bank holding companies were limited to the business of banking and activities 
  closely related or incidental to banking. Bank holding companies were generally prohibited from acquiring control 
  of any company which was not a bank and from engaging in any business other than the business of banking or 
  managing and controlling banks. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which took effect on March 12, 2000, dismantled 
  many Depression-era restrictions against affiliation between banking, securities and insurance firms by permitting 
  bank holding companies to engage in a broader range of financial activities, so long as certain safeguards are 
  observed. Specifically, bank holding companies may elect to become “financial holding companies” that may 
  affiliate with securities firms and insurance companies and engage in other activities that are financial in nature or 