Concept
In most legal jurisdictions, a financial institution is required to obtain a banking licence before it is legally permitted to carry on a banking business. Besides other requirements, such a business is not permitted to contain in its name words such as bank, insurance, national, etc, unless it holds an appropriate licence. Depending on banking regulations, jurisdictions may offer different types of banking licences, such as: full banking licenses for general banking activities, such as taking deposits from the general public international banking licences (offshore banking licences), which prohibits any local business activities non-banking financial institution (NBFI) is an institution that provides financial services but has to comply with fewer regulations than one with a full banking licence. Licenses are typically issued by a national banking regulator to applicant corporations that meet its banking requirements. The requirements may include minimum capital requirements, minimum number of directors, residence of shareholders, spread of shareholdings, disclosure of beneficial shareholders, besides other matters. These requirements may differ between jurisdictions, and may differ depending on the type of license being sought. Some jurisdictions, sometimes called tax havens, have a reputation for lax or corrupt standards in bank licensing, granting a license, for example, to shell companies, or to companies with nominee directors, or with dummy shareholders, etc. The granting of the license may involve a long, complex and expensive procedure, which may depend on the type of bank license being sought. There are a number of sectors in which banks may be involved. The general bank license allows a bank to engage in all banking activities, such as retail banking, merchant acquiring, cash management, asset management and trading. An applicant can apply for a limited banking license, such as an offshore banking license.