WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee has announced that it will hold a hearing on the Industrial Bank Holding Company Act of 2007 (H.R. 698).

Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) joined forces will Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) to introduce the legislation in January. Despite Wal-Mart pulling its application for an industrial loan company charter, lawmakers are still pursuing legislation to help maintain the separation of banking and commerce.

The legislation is an outgrowth of Gillmor/Frank amendments that passed the House in the 108th and 109th Congresses to prohibit newly formed, commercially-owned ILCs from gaining additional powers, including opening branches nationwide. According to the bill's sponsors, it will restore the historic separation between banking and commerce, prevent branch banking by some commercially-owned ILCs, and bolster the examination and enforcement authorities of the FDIC as regulator.