State bank

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A state bank is generally a bank that is owned by a state. It differs from a reserve bank in that it does not necessarily control monetary policy (indeed, the state in question may have no legal capacity to create monetary policy), but instead usually offers retail and commercial services.

In the United States the term state bank is used in contradistinction to "national bank." All national banks are chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as are some state banks. Other state banks choose to have their charters processed by the FDIC and correspondingly subject themselves to regulation by the FDIC and the Department of Finance (or equivalent) of their respective states.

The Australian states all used to have state banks, but all have since been privatised. Although the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was to some extent a state bank by the above definition before privatisation, the word ‘state’ in Australia refers predominantly to the subnational entities.

[edit] List of state banks

• State Bank of Pakistan
• State Bank of India
• State Bank of South Australia (now the Bank of South Australia, owned by St George Bank)
• State Bank of Victoria (defunct)