or consumers. The Commission shall not approve, or continue the approval of, any company as a mutual service company unless the Commission finds such company is so organized as to ownership, costs, revenues, and the sharing thereof as reasonably to insure the efficient and economical performance of service, sales, or construction contracts by such company for member companies, at cost fairly and equitably allocated among such member companies, at a reasonable saving to member companies over the cost to such companies of comparable contracts performed by independent persons. The Commission, upon its own motion or at the request of a member company or a State commission, may, after notice and opportunity for hearing, by order require a reallocation or reapportionment of costs among member companies of a mutual service company if it finds the existing allocation inequitable and may require the elimination of a service or services to a member company which does not bear its fair proportion of costs or which, by reason of its size or other circumstances, does not require such service or services. The Commission, after notice and opportunity for hearing, by order shall revoke, suspend, or modify the approval given any mutual service company if it finds that such company has persistently violated any provision of this section or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder.

(e) It shall be unlawful for any affiliate of any public-utility company engaged in interstate commerce, or of any registered holding company or subsidiary company thereof, by use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or otherwise, to enter into or take any step in the performance of any service, sales, or construction contract, by which such affiliate undertakes to perform services or construction work for, or sell goods to, any such company of which it is an affiliate, in contravention of such rules and regulations or orders regarding reports, accounts, costs, maintenance of competitive conditions, disclosure of interest, duration of contracts, and similar matters, as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate to prevent the circumvention of the provisions of this title or the rules, regulations, or orders thereunder.

(f) It shall be unlawful for any person whose principal business is the performance of service, sales, or construction contracts for public-utility or holding companies, by use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, to enter into or take any step in the performance of any service, sales, or construction contract with any public-utility company, or for any such person, by use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or otherwise, to enter into or take any step in the performance of any service, sales, or construction contract with any public-utility company engaged in interstate commerce, or with any registered holding company or any subsidiary company of a registered holding company, in contravention of such rules and regulations or orders regarding reports, accounts, costs, maintenance of competitive conditions, disclosure of interest, duration of contracts, and similar matters as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers or to prevent the circumvention of the provisions of this title or the rules, regulations, or orders thereunder.

(g) The Commission, in order to obtain information to serve as a basis for recommending further legislation, shall from time to time conduct investigations regarding the making, performance, and costs of service, sales, and construction contracts with holding companies and subsidiary companies thereof and with public-utility companies, the economies resulting therefrom, and the desirability thereof. The Commission shall report to Congress, from time to time, the results of such investigations, together with such recommendations for legislation as it deems advisable. On the basis of such investigations the Commission shall classify the different types of such contracts and the work done thereunder, and shall make recommendations from time to time regarding the standards and scope of such contracts in relation to public-utility companies of different kinds and sizes and the costs incurred thereunder and economies resulting therefrom. Such recommendations shall be made available to State commissions, public-utility companies, and to the public in such form and at such reasonable charge as the Commission may prescribe.

PERIODIC AND OTHER REPORTS

SEC. 14. [79n] Every registered holding company and every mutual service company shall file with the Commission such annual, quarterly, and other periodic and special reports, the answers to such specific questions and the minutes of such directors', stockholders', and other meetings, as the Commission may by rules and regulations or order prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers. Such reports, if required by the rules and regulations of the Commission, shall be certified by an independent public accountant, and shall be made and filed at such time and in such form and detail as the Commission shall prescribe. The Commission may require_that there be included in reports filed with it such information and documents as it finds necessary or appropriate to keep reasonably current the information filed under section 5 or 13, and such further information concerning the financial condition, security structure, security holdings, assets, and cost thereof, wherever determinable, and affiliations of the reporting company and the associate companies, member companies, and affiliates thereof as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers.

ACCOUNTS AND RECORDS

SEC. 15. [790] (a) Every registered holding company and every subsidiary company thereof shall make, keep, and preserve for such periods, such accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers or for the enforcement of the provisions of this title or the rules, regulations, or orders thereunder.

(b) Every affiliate of a registered holding company or of any subsidiary company thereof, or of any public-utility company engaged in interstate commerce or not so engaged, shall make, keep,

and preserve for such periods, such accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records relating to any transaction of such affiliate which is subject to any provision of this title or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers or for the enforcement of the provisions of this title or the rules, regulations, or orders thereunder.

(c) Every mutual service company, and every affiliate of a mutual service company as to any transaction of such affiliate which is subject to any provision of this title or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, shall make, keep, and preserve for such periods, such accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records, as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers or for the enforcement of the provisions of this title or the rules, regulations, or orders thereunder.

(d) Every person whose principal business is the performance of service, sales, or construction contracts for public-utility or holding companies shall make, keep, and preserve for such periods, such accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records, relating to any transaction by such person which is subject to any provision of this title or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers or for the enforcement of the provisions of this title or the rules and regulations thereunder.

(e) After the Commission has prescribed the form and manner of making and keeping accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records to be kept by any person hereunder, it shall be unlawful for any such person to keep any accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, or other records other than those prescribed or such as may be approved by the Commission, or to keep his or its accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, or other records in any manner other than that prescribed or approved by the Commission.

(f) All accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records kept or required to be kept by persons subject to any provision of this section shall be subject at any time and from time to time to such reasonable periodic, special, and other examinations by the Commission, or any member or representative thereof, as the Commission may prescribe. The Commission, after notice and opportunity for hearing, may prescribe the account or accounts in which particular outlays, receipts, and other transactions shall be entered, charged, or credited and the manner in which such entry, charge, or credit shall be made, and may require an entry to be modified or supplemented so as properly to show the cost of any asset or any other cost.

(g) It shall be the duty of every registered holding company and of every subsidiary company thereof and of every affiliate of a company insofar as such affiliate is subject to any provision of this title or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, to submit the accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda,

papers, books, and other records of such holding company, subsidiary company, or affiliate, as the case may be, to such examinations, in person or by duly appointed attorney, by the holder of any security of such holding company, subsidiary company, or affiliate, as the case may be, as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or

consumers.

(h) It shall be the duty of every mutual service company, and of every affiliate of a mutual service company, and of every person whose principal business is the performance of service, sales, or construction contracts for public-utility or holding companies, insofar as such affiliate or such person is subject to any provision of this title or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, to submit the accounts, cost-accounting procedures, correspondence, memoranda, papers, books, and other records of such mutual service company, affiliate, or person to such examinations, in person or by duly appointed attorney, by member companies of such mutual service company and by public-utility or holding companies for which such person performs service, sales, or construction contracts as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers.

(i) The Commission, by such rules and regulations as it deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers may prescribe for persons subject to the provisions of subsection (a), (b), (c), or (d) of this section uniform methods for keeping accounts required under any provision of this section, including, among other things, the manner in which the cost of all assets, whenever determinable, shall be shown, the methods of classifying and segregating accounts, and the manner in which cost-accounting procedures shall be maintained.

LIABILITY FOR MISLEADING STATEMENTS

SEC. 16. [79p] (a) Any person who shall make or cause to be made any statement in any application, report, registration statement, or document filed pursuant to any provision of this title, or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, which statement was at the time and in the light of the circumstances under which it was made false or misleading with respect to any material fact shall be liable in the same manner, to the same extent, and subject to the same limitations as provided in section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with respect to an application, report, or document filed pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

(b) The rights and remedies provided by this title, except as provided in section 17(b), shall be in addition to any and all other rights and remedies that may exist under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or otherwise at law or in equity; but no person permitted to maintain a suit for damages under the provisions of this title shall recover, through satisfaction of judgment in one or more actions, a total amount in excess of his actual damages on account of the act complained of.

OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, AND OTHER AFFILIATES

SEC. 17. [79q] (a) Every person who is an officer or director of a registered holding company shall file with the Commission in such form as the Commission shall prescribe (1) at the time of the registration of such holding company, or within ten days after such person becomes an officer or director, a statement of the securities of such registered holding company or any subsidiary company thereof of which he is, directly or indirectly, the beneficial owner, and (2) within ten days after the close of each calendar month thereafter, if there has been any change in such ownership during such month, a statement of such ownership as of the close of such calendar month and of the changes in such ownership that have occurred during such calendar month.

(b) For the purpose of preventing the unfair use of information which may have been obtained by any such officer or director by reason of his relationship to such registered holding company or any subsidiary company thereof, any profit realized by any such of ficer or director from any purchase and sale, or any sale and purchase, of any security of such registered holding company or any subsidiary company thereof within any period of less than six months, unless such security was acquired in good faith in connection with a debt previously contracted, shall inure to and be recoverable by the holding company or subsidiary company in respect of the security of which such profit was realized, irrespective of any intention on the part of such officer or director in entering into such transaction to hold the security purchased or not to repurchase the security sold for a period of more than six months. Suit to recover such profit may be instituted at law or in equity in any court of competent jurisdiction by the company entitled thereto or by the owner of any security of such company in the name and in the behalf of such company if such company shall fail or refuse to bring such suit within sixty days after request or shall fail diligently to prosecute the same thereafter; but no such suit shall be brought more than two years after the date such profit was realized. This subsection shall not cover any transaction where such person was not an officer or director at the times of the purchase and sale, or the sale and purchase, of the security involved, or any transaction or transactions which the Commission by rules and regulations may, as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers, exempt as not comprehended within the purpose of this subsection. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to give a remedy in the case of any transaction in respect of which a remedy is given under subsection (b) of section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

(c) After one year from the date of the enactment of this title, no registered holding company or any subsidiary company thereof shall have, as an officer or director thereof, any executive officer, director, partner, appointee, or representative of any bank, trust company, investment banker, or banking association or firm, or any executive officer, director, partner, appointee, or representative of any corporation a majority of whose stock, having the unrestricted right to vote for the election of directors, is owned by any bank, trust company, investment banker, or banking association or firm,