# Bancorp? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 29, 2014, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923 "2014-06-29T08:39:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tinboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinboy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/1 "2014-06-29T08:39:13Z")
Look for information on a bank one night(this night) I come across a word that I was not sure about(bancorp)… So I look it up through google and can not find any information. So is bancorp just a portmanteau of bank and corporation, or is there more too it?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/2 "2014-06-29T14:24:21Z")
Portmanteau. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/3 "2014-06-29T14:27:36Z")
It’s a trademark. It doesn’t have to mean anything, like Exxon or Altria. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/4 "2014-06-29T14:35:46Z")
Portmanteauizing corporate names like this (sometimes using camelCase too) has been a popular corporate-think meme for a while now. Lot’s of big companies have been doing this. There have been the “old traditional” standards out there for a long time – like PepsiCo and Nabisco (National Biscuit Corporation). Then came the companies like Bank of America with their BankAmericard, and so on. A lot of companies with multi-word names have decided to smush together the words into one name, sometimes with weird abbreviations. Whatever. I find it annoying and pretentious, like those insurance companies that begin their names with “The”, or all the companies that have taken three-letter abbreviations as their names (which may or may not actually stand for something). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/5 "2014-06-29T14:45:53Z")
Took time to search Google Books. The first mention of a Bancorp is far older than I thought. Northwest Bancorp (probably the Northwest Savings Bank of Warren, PA) was named that in the 1920s. It does mean something, of course. It’s a portmanteau of bank corporation. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/6 "2014-06-29T15:01:53Z")
It’s as corp that has been banned, or perhaps should be. I say let’s ban all corps. ---
**Author:** ![barker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@barker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/7 "2014-06-29T15:16:30Z")
A Bancorp is usually associated with the name of the Holding Company that actually owns the bank (or a number of banks). For the example above. Northwest Bancorp was probably the parent company of Northwest Savings Bank. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/8 "2014-06-30T00:24:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Took time to search Google Books. The first mention of a Bancorp is far older than I thought. Northwest Bancorp (probably the Northwest Savings Bank of Warren, PA) was named that in the 1920s. > > It does mean something, of course. It’s a portmanteau of bank corporation. No, it was Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, which later became Norwest, and then later Wells Fargo. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/9 "2014-06-30T00:40:58Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > No, it was Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, which later became Norwest, and then later Wells Fargo. Thanks. I made a tentative association off of Googling, but couldn’t nail it down. ---
**Author:** ![Tinboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinboy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/10 "2014-07-01T07:33:48Z")
Thanks for the conformation, though I am irritated that bancorp has no entry anywhere(outside bank sites and sites relevant to them). Small reference pool I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/11 "2014-07-01T13:07:51Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Whatever. I find it annoying and pretentious, like those insurance companies that begin their names with “The”, or all the companies that have taken three-letter abbreviations as their names (which may or may not actually stand for something). Huh. I thought “Bancorp” had foreign connotations, like maybe the bank’s owners were based in Spain or something like that. I didn’t know it was just a portmanteau. The abbreviation thing is pretty much an effort by the company to distance themselves from their roots. For example, Pittsburgh National Bank is now just PNC Bank because they have expanded outside of western Pennsylvania. Similarly, the powers that be at British Petroleum decided that it would be better if their name didn’t explicitly reference Great Britain, so now they’re just “BP.” ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/12 "2014-07-01T18:36:20Z")
“Bancorp” and “Banc” are legal weasel-words to avoid being considered as a licensed and legally chartered bank. Most states require any entity calling itself a “banK” to have a banking charter, so if Bank of America’s long-ago predecessor hypothetically wanted to get into the insurance business, they could call themselves “Banc of Italy Insurance” which is pronounced the same as “Bank of Italy Insurance” but legally, it’s not a bank, so they avoid banking regulations. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/13 "2014-07-01T19:08:28Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > “Bancorp” and “Banc” are legal weasel-words to avoid being considered as a licensed and legally chartered bank. > > Most states require any entity calling itself a “banK” to have a banking charter, so if Bank of America’s long-ago predecessor hypothetically wanted to get into the insurance business, they could call themselves “Banc of Italy Insurance” which is pronounced the same as “Bank of Italy Insurance” but legally, it’s not a bank, so they avoid banking regulations. Please, please, please cite the state or federal banking laws that say this. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/14 "2014-07-01T20:49:05Z")
The California Financial Code defines the word “bank” as: > [@](#): > > 1. The word “bank” as used in the Financial Institutions Law means any incorporated banking institution that shall have been incorporated to engage in commercial banking business, industrial banking, or trust business. > > (Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 334, Sec. 7. Effective January 1, 2014.) Some more from CA: > [@](#): > > The name of a limited liability company may not include the words bank, trust, trustee, incorporated, inc., corporation, or corp. (California Corporations Code section 17701.08(e).) And, an oldie but a goodie referring to Ohio law. I haven’t been able to lay eyes on the specific law yet, but this was a letter to the editor in the _New York Times_: > [@](#): > > To the Editor: > > Your article (“The Best Little Bank in America,” June 30) did not answer an interesting question about Banc One: Why our name seems to keep getting misspelled in that it appears as Bank One and Banc One. The reason is that Ohio law only permits operating banks to use the word “bank” in their names. Holding companies, which own banks but do not operate as a bank, must use “banc.” Therefore our operating banks are called Bank One. Our holding companies and other subsidiaries are called Banc One. > JOHN A. RUSSELL > Columbus, Ohio, July 10 > The author is a vice president of the Banc One Corporation. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/15 "2014-07-01T23:41:53Z")
Good, I was hoping that you would get that far. What you still don’t seem to understand is that the difference is precisely opposite to what you claimed. Holding companies aren’t subject to banking regulations _because they are not banks_. They aren’t evading any rules; they are _following_ them. Banc is _not_ a weasel word; it says properly that it does not provide any banking services. Yes, of course there is a legal distinction between a holding company and a bank - because they are two different things with different purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/16 "2014-07-02T00:31:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Holding companies aren’t subject to banking regulations _because they are not banks_. They aren’t evading any rules; they are _following_ them. Banc is _not_ a weasel word; it says properly that it does not provide any banking services. Yes, of course there is a legal distinction between a holding company and a bank - because they are two different things with different purposes. Do you not think that these holding companies would prefer to use bank-with-a-k to match the names of their banking subsidiaries? What about a company like Banc of America Securities, which is an investment banking subsidiary of Bank of America? Although they clearly do banking in some sense of the word, they don’t meet the legal requirements for a bank and hence can’t have that exact word in the title. Banc is pretty much the definition of a weasel word: it creates the impression of something (that the company is a bank) without actually saying so (which would violate the rules). It is just like with food labeling, where companies avoid words that are regulated by the FDA in favor of ones like “all natural” that have few to no such rules around them. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/17 "2014-07-02T00:39:42Z")
Yeah, I’m sure there are words that are _more_ of a weasel word than “Banc”, but I can’t think of one right now. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/18 "2014-07-02T00:50:48Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Yeah, I’m sure there are words that are _more_ of a weasel word than “Banc”, but I can’t think of one right now. All that said, **gotpasswords** is probably overstating the case when it comes to wanting to “avoid banking regulations”. Most of the examples seem to be where an existing bank (that had “bank” in their name) wanted to branch out, either by creating an umbrella corporation or various subsidiaries, and had to do something about their name. An investment banking service obviously isn’t going to be FDIC insured; that isn’t about skirting regulations but rather about what investment banking is. To be honest, before **gotpasswords** ’s post, I thought _Banc of America_ was an attempt at a more “international” sounding name. The “c” makes it seem… I dunno, French or something. So the weaselness worked quite well on me. ---
**Author:** ![barker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@barker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/19 "2014-07-02T01:21:14Z")
Bancorp’s or Bank Holding Companies are regulated by the Federal Reserve. They have significant limitations on the type of business they can conduct, especially those that may be funded by the insured deposits of their banking subsidiaries. They are not avoiding regulation, they are simply regulated by a different entity. National Banks and Federal Savings Banks are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. State Banks are regulated by their State Departments of Banking and either the FDIC for non member banks or the Federal Reserve for those that are Fed members. The Holding Companies exist to allow the corporations to engage in activities that may not be permitted activities of insured banks. Examples are insurance underwriting and certain broker/dealer activities. They are subject to heavy regulation. They do permit a corporation through non banking subsidiaries to engage in financial activities that are related to banking, but not permitted to be performed directly by a bank. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923/20 "2014-07-02T02:42:26Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Banc is pretty much the definition of a weasel word: it creates the impression of something (that the company is a bank) without actually saying so (which would violate the rules). It is just like with food labeling, where companies avoid words that are regulated by the FDA in favor of ones like “all natural” that have few to no such rules around them. > [@Ludovic](#): > > Yeah, I’m sure there are words that are _more_ of a weasel word than “Banc”, but I can’t think of one right now. Is this for real? Look, you cannot get scammed by the banking services of a Bancorp. Why? Because _a Bancorp does not provide banking services_. A bank owned by a Bancorp can provide banking services, but those are regulated in the regular way. A Bancorp can provide other financial services, but those are regulated under the appropriate bodies. That’s right: you are 100% guaranteed not to get scammed by a Bancorp providing unregulated banking services. This is one case in which the government protects even the willfully ignorant. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bancorp/691923.md?page=2)