THE WASHINGTON POST Thursday, July 9, 1981  
The Securities and Exchange Commission supports changes in the law that would limit how much foreign investors may borrow to buy stocks, putting them on an equal footing with American investors, an SEC commissioner said yesterday.</br></br>Testifying before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee, Philip A. Loomis Jr. said that the agency supports proposed legislation that would ÛÏfill a gap ... that seems to favor foreign nationals in efforts to acquire control of U.S. corporations.Û</br></br>The subcommittee is considering two bills. One, introduced by Sen. Al-fonse M. DÛªAmato (R-N.Y.), would extend U.S. margin requirements to foreign investors. The margin requirements allow potential investors to borrow only 50 percent of the value of the stock they seek to acquire.</br></br>Another bill, introduced by Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), would impose the margin requirement only on investors seeking to buy 5 percent or more of a companyÛªs stock. The Kassebaum bill also would im- pose a nine-month moratorium on acquisitions of more than 5 percent of the voting stock of any U.S. energy corporation by Canadian investors.</br></br>Both proposed pieces of legislation are in response to Canadian restrictions on U.S. investment there and recent takeovers or attempted takeovers of American firms by Canadian companies. Witnesses protested that the Canadian companies have been able to borrow 100 percent of the purchase price to buy control of American companies, even in cases where the acquiring firm was significantly smaller than its target.