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issue 58 F.2d 57 (10th Cir. 1932)12; Black's Law Dictionary 236 (6th
ed. 1990).
The charter of a bank is granted by the jurisdiction in which
the bank is created. When a bank seeks to directly do business in
a foreign jurisdiction (whether another State or country), it
receives a license to conduct business in the foreign jurisdiction.
It does not receive a charter. Clearly, neither BCCI, S.A. nor its
IOMB was chartered under Federal or State law.
Petitioner contends, however, that the Los Angeles agency
office of BCCI, S.A. was chartered in California. Petitioner
observes that BCCI, S.A. filed an application to do business in
California, and argues that the application "presumably" included
a copy of its charter.
Under California law, a foreign bank does not derive its
existence and general authority to operate from California. The
foreign bank is merely licensed13 by the State to exercise some of
the authority granted by the bank's original charter. See Cal.
12 Similarly, Rev. Rul. 90-54, 1990-2 C.B. 270, 271, which
considered the difference between a bank and savings association,
stated that "the charter is the source of an institution's
existence and its right to conduct business."
13 A "license" is the permission to do or carry on some
trade or business which would otherwise be unlawful. Black's Law
Dictionary 920 (6th ed. 1990).
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