Bank Charters and Special Bank Types

National- and state-charter terms plus specialized industrial-bank and development-bank structures.

A bank charter identifies the authority that creates the legal bank and helps determine its powers and supervisors. In the United States, a National Bank receives its charter from the OCC, while a State-Chartered Bank is organized under state law.

Special labels answer different questions. Industrial Banks covers a specialized state-chartered model, while National Development Banks covers public-purpose institutions whose authority varies by country.

Verify the legal entity, chartering authority, Federal Reserve membership, primary federal supervisor, insurer, holding company, and product provider separately. A charter label does not establish deposit insurance, financial strength, permitted activities, or customer suitability by itself.

This section provides general financial education, not legal, regulatory, banking, tax, or deposit-insurance advice.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Industrial Banks

An industrial bank or industrial loan company is an FDIC-insured, state-chartered bank with a distinctive U.S. ownership and supervisory structure.

National Bank

A U.S. national bank is chartered and supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under federal banking law, rather than by a state chartering authority.

National Development Banks

A national development bank is a public-policy financial institution that uses loans, guarantees, equity, or other tools to address financing gaps within a country.

State-Chartered Bank

A state-chartered bank is organized under state banking law and supervised by its state regulator plus either the Federal Reserve or FDIC at the federal level.

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