2. The total amount of a credit institution's qualifying holdings in undertakings other than credit institutions, financial institutions or undertakings carrying on activities which are a direct extension of banking or concern services ancillary to banking, such as leasing, factoring, the management of unit trusts, the management of data processing services, or any other similar activity may not exceed 60% of its own funds.

1. No credit institution may have a qualifying holding the amount of which exceeds 15% of its own funds in an undertaking which is neither a credit institution, nor a financial institution, nor an undertaking carrying on activities which are a direct extension of banking or concern services ancillary to banking, such as leasing, factoring, the management of unit trusts, the management of data processing services or any other similar activity.

Article 3 of the Second Council Directive 89/646/EEC of 15 December 1989 on the coordination of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions and amending Directive 77/780/EEC should be interpreted as prohibiting all persons or undertakings other than credit institutions from carrying on the business of taking deposits or other repayable funds from the public even where the obligation to repay arises not from the intrinsic characteristic of repayability ...[+++] of the instruments used but from a contractual agreement.

Article 3 of the Second Council Directive 89/646/EEC of 15 December 1989 on the coordination of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions and amending Directive 77/780/EEC should be interpreted as prohibiting all persons or undertakings other than credit institutions from carrying on the business of taking deposits or other repayable funds from the public even where the obligation to repay arises not from the intrinsic characteristic of repayability ...[+++] of the instruments used but from a contractual agreement.

To extend the obligation to carry out supervision of banking activity on a consolidated basis where the parent undertaking of the group in question is not a credit institution but a "financial holding company", i.e. an enterprise whose subsidiaries are exclusively or mainly credit or financial institutions.

Following the specific amendments agreed by the Commission, the proposal now: - makes clear that a credit institution that also acted as an investment firm could belong to a single compensation scheme as long as the scheme met the requirements of both the deposit-guarantee Directive and the investor compensation Directive - incorporates equivalent clauses to the bank deposit-guarantee Directive concerning the possibility for branches to opt-in to higher levels of compensation in the host country ('top-up'), the regime for branches of firms with their head office in a non-EU country (Member States must ensure home countries schemes offer ...[+++]equivalent cover or oblige branches to join the host country scheme) and the principle that schemes should be financed by investment firms themselves - includes revised definitions of "investment firm" and "branch" which refer to the definitions in the Investment Services Directive and a new definition of "joint investment" - clarifies that authorisation for investment firms is based on the principle of home country control and that no investment firm (other than credit institutions exempted under the deposit-guarantee Directive) could operate unless it participated in an investor compensation scheme - simplifies the definition of when and how the amount of an investor's claim should be determined - makes a specific reference to the exclusion from compensation of any transaction in connection with which there has been a conviction for money-laundering as defined by the Directive on the issue (91/308/EEC) - includes a requirement for continued coverage by the compensation scheme even when a firm's authorisation to operate has been withdrawn (in case it should subsequently transpire that the firm was unable to meet its commitments to investors) - requires the Commission to report on the Directive's operation three years after it is due to be implemented (31.12.96) rather than five years after.