Federal Reserve Chairman Alan S. Greenspan called...

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan S. Greenspan called for repeal of the 54-year-old law that bars banks from the securities business and backed an approach that would give his agency broad oversight over such ventures. Greenspan, outlining for the first time the Fed’s recommendation on how to overhaul the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, said banks should be allowed to underwrite securities as long as the activities are conducted by a subsidiary of the bank’s holding company and not directly by the institution. That is the structure advocated by Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.