Credit Card Glossary: Terms and Definitions

National bank

When banks form, they can choose to be incorporated as state-chartered or as national banks. A national bank is regulated and supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). National banks are the sources of the majority of credit card in the United States. The OCC regulates and supervises more than 1,600 national banks and about 50 federal branches of foreign banks in the U.S., which accounts for about two-thirds of the total assets of all U.S. commercial banks. National banks are also required to belong to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and to be members of the Federal Reserve.