12 U.S.C. § 36 — Branch banks

This section sets the conditions under which a national bank may keep or open branches. (a) Existing branches. A national bank may keep and run branches it lawfully operated on February 25, 1927. A bank that had continuously run just one branch for more than 25 years before that date may also keep running it. (b) Converted or consolidated banks. A national bank created by converting a state bank may keep a branch that was a state-bank branch before conversion, if that office could be approved as a new branch under subsection (c), was a branch on February 25, 1927, or the Comptroller of the Currency approves it — except the Comptroller can't approve it if state law would block an identically situated state bank from doing the same. Similar rules apply to a bank formed by consolidating (including merging) with other banks: it may keep offices that were branches of the participating banks before consolidation, under matching conditions and the same state-law limit on Comptroller approval. (c) New branches. With the Comptroller's approval, a national bank can open new branches within the city, town, or village where it's located, if state law lets state banks do the same there. It can also open branches anywhere in its home state if state law expressly and affirmatively lets state banks do so, subject to the same location limits state law puts on state banks. States that let state banks branch countywide also let a national bank, with Comptroller approval, open a seasonal agency in a resort community within its home county if no bank already operates there — though that permit is revoked once a state or national bank opens in that community. Outside these special cases, a national bank generally can't branch outside its home city, town, or village unless its combined capital and surplus at least matches what state law requires of state banks branching there. (d) Interstate merger branches. A national bank formed through an interstate merger may keep and run a branch in a state other than its home state, following section 1831u. (e) Exclusive authority. Since June 1, 1997, a national bank generally can't open or run a branch outside its home state (or a state where it already has one) unless authorized under this section or specific related sections. A bank that later moves its main office to another state can keep operating its old-state branches only to the extent it would otherwise be allowed to branch there. (f) Applicable law. A host state's laws on community reinvestment, consumer protection, fair lending, and intrastate branching apply to an out-of-state national bank's branch there, the same as they apply to a bank chartered by that state — unless federal law preempts them, or the Comptroller finds they'd discriminate against the branch. The Comptroller enforces these state laws against the branch and must review and report yearly on how it has applied them. For every other state law except taxation, the branch is treated as if it were itself a bank chartered in that state. This subsection doesn't change the legal rules on when state law is preempted for national banks generally. (g) State opt-in for de novo branches. The Comptroller may approve a national bank's application to open a brand-new ("de novo") branch in a state where it has no existing branch, if that state's law would let a state-chartered bank open the same branch, and the same approval conditions used for interstate mergers are met. "De novo branch" means a branch a bank builds itself, not one it gets through acquiring or merging with another institution. "Home State" is where the bank's main office sits; "host State" is any other state where the bank has, or wants, a branch. (h) Repealed. (i) Prior approval. No national bank branch can be opened or moved without the Comptroller's prior consent and approval. (j) "Branch" defined. This includes any branch bank, branch office, branch agency, additional office, or other branch place of business — in any state, territory, or D.C. — where the bank takes deposits, cashes checks, or lends money. It does not include an automated teller machine or remote service unit. (k) Foreign branches. This section doesn't change section 25 of the Federal Reserve Act, which separately authorizes national banks to open branches in foreign countries, dependencies, or U.S. insular possessions. (l) "State bank" and "bank" defined. These terms include trust companies, savings banks, and other similar institutions doing banking business under state law authority.