The conference committee on financial services modernization today approved an amendment offered by Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, that sets out oversight of securities activities by banks.

The amendment provides that:

• The trust exemption from broker registration is available to banks if they do not publicly solicit brokerage business and they are chiefly compensated for those services through the types of fees consistent with fiduciary principles. The provision is essentially the trust activities provision of HR 10.

• If a bank is not affiliated with a broker or dealer, the bank would be limited in its private placement activities. Specifically, any one private placement offering in which the ban is involved could not exceed 25% of the bank's capital, although private placements of government and municipal securities would be exempted.

• The definition of qualified investor is increased from $10 million to $25 million the amount that a company or individual investor owns and invests on a discretionary basis.