Fed Gives Approval to AS&T's Plan To Establish Bank Holding Company
Plans of American Security & Trust Co. to establish a bank holding company were approved last night by the Federal Reserve Board,</br></br>Terming the hankÛªs plan ÛÏa mere reorganizationÛ of AS&T and its affiliated' American Security Corp., the hoard rejected charges by local citizen groups that the application should he denied because of alleged racial discrimination in hiring and mortgage lending by AS&T, the cityÛªs second largest bank.</br></br>American Security Corp. was established by AS&T in 1957 to assume ownership of such non-banking operations as real estate and a travel agency.</br></br>The affiliated firm also acquired control over Fairfax County National Bank, which must he reduced to less than a 25 per cent stock interest by November under an earlier Federal Reserve decision.</br></br>In yesterdayÛªs ruling, the board said a reorganization ÛÏinto a more traditional parent-subsidiary holding com- pany system will be likely to increase the efficiency and will permit greater flexibility in adding equity capital to ASC and AS&T.Û