220
Opinion of the Court
. . . 'upset the balance' that the federal chartering authority 'may strike . . . .' " Brief for Respondent 23 (quoting Kamen, supra, at 103). To invoke the concept of "uniformity," however, is not to prove its need. Cf. Kimbell Foods, supra, at 730 (rejecting "generalized pleas for uniformity"); O'Melveny, supra, at 88 (same).
For one thing, the number of federally insured banks is about equally divided between federally chartered and state-chartered banks, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 1 Statistics on Banking: A Statistical History of the United States Banking Industry, p. B-9 (Aug. 1995) (Table SI-9) (showing that, in 1989, there were 1,595 federally chartered institutions and 1,492 state-chartered ones); and a federal standard that increases uniformity among the former would increase disparity with the latter.
For another, our Nation's banking system has thrived despite disparities in matters of corporate governance. Consider, for example, the divergent state-law governance standards applicable to banks chartered in different States, e. g., Ind. Code § 23-1-35-1(e)(2) (1994) (directors not liable unless conduct constitutes at least "willful misconduct or recklessness"); Iowa Code § 524.605 (1995) (providing ordinary negligence standard), as well as the different ways in which lower courts since 1891 have interpreted Briggs' "federal common law" standard. Compare Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation v. Mason, 115 F. 2d 548, 551-552 (CA3 1940) (applying standard similar to simple negligence), with Washington Bancorporation v. Said, 812 F. Supp. 1256, 1266 (DC 1993) (Briggs did not apply "simple negligence" standard of care). See R. Stevens & B. Nielson, The Standard of Care for Directors and Officers of Federally Chartered Depository Institutions: It's Gross Negligence Regardless of Whether Section 1821(k) Preempts Federal Common Law, 13 Ann. Review Banking L. 169, 172 (1994) (in part because of "widely varying results, the federal common law standard of care is neither fully developed, nor well settled"). See
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