In banking, the term national bank carries several meanings:
- especially in developing countries, a bank owned by the state
- an ordinary private bank which operates nationally (as opposed to regionally or locally or even internationally)
- in the United States, an ordinary private bank operating within a specific regulatory structure, which may or may not operate nationally, under the supervision of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
In the past, the term "national bank" has been used synonymously with "central bank", but it is no longer used in this sense today. Some central banks may have the words "National Bank" in their name; conversely if a bank is named in this way, it is not automatically considered a central bank. For example, National-Bank AG in Essen, Germany is a privately owned commercial bank, just like National Bank of Canada of Montreal, Canada. On the other side, National Bank of Ethiopia is the central bank of Ethiopia and National Bank of Cambodia is the central bank of Cambodia.
Read more about National Bank: Afghanistan, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Iran, Pakistan, Serbia, United States
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or bank:
“...I have wanted to believe people could make their dreams come true ... that problems could be solved. However, this is a national illness. As Americans, we believe all problems can be solved, that all questions have answers.”
—Kristin Hunter (b. 1931)
“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)