Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System v. Transamerica Corp.

An order denying a motion to dissolve a restraining order and granting an injunction containing our findings upon the issues herein, was filed on Saturday, June 24, 1950. We now proceed to state, more in detail, the facts disclosed in this proceeding, and the considerations which prompted our decision.

While the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System was in the process of holding hearings upon a complaint, filed under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 18 , charging Transamerica Corporation with a violation of that Act and seeking to require that corporation to cease and desist from such violations, and to divest itself of the stock of certain banks alleged to have been acquired contrary to the interdiction of the Act, the respondent Bank of America, which was also one of the banks listed in said proceedings, entered into arrangements with certain of the banks whereby the Bank of America proposed to acquire the assets of such banks.

Steps looking to the acquisition of these bank assets, although clearly planned for a considerable period, were commenced on June 20, 1950, three days prior to the institution of this proceeding, when the Comptroller of the…