In the
English language, banq and banc are
coined words pronounced identically to the word "
bank". Both terms have been adopted by financial services companies and others to satisfy legal restrictions on the usage of the word ''bank''. The
compound bancorp
A bank holding company is a company that controls one or more banks, but does not necessarily engage in banking itself. The compound bancorp (''banc''/''bank'' + '' corp ration') is often used to refer to these companies as well.
United States ...
(''banc''/''bank'' + ''
corp ration') is often used in the names of
bank holding companies. For example, a hypothetical chartered bank named Bank of Manhattan might form a holding company named "Manhattan Bancorp", and a sister insurance business named "Banc of Manhattan Insurance". One well-known past example was
Bank of America's investment banking entity, named
Banc of America Securities
In the English language, banq and banc are coined words pronounced identically to the word "bank". Both terms have been adopted by financial services companies and others to satisfy legal restrictions on the usage of the word ''bank''. The compo ...
(now part of
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
BofA Securities, Inc., previously Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), is an American multinational investment banking division under the auspices of Bank of America. It is not to be confused with Merrill, the stock brokerage and trading plat ...
).
This practice originates from legal necessity: in the United States, the commerce departments of state governments generally prohibit or restrict the use of certain words in the names of corporations unless those corporations are legitimate chartered banks. For example, words prohibited by the state of Louisiana include ''bank, banker, banking, savings, safe deposit, trust, trustee,'' and ''credit union''.
The evasive nature of the word does not necessarily indicate that an imposter is attempting to fraudulently impersonate a bank. One notable example is a company called ''Cachet Banq Inc.'', an
automated clearing house processing service that performs automated banking transactions for
payroll processing. The company does not claim to offer any
banking services
Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking. Banking servi ...
, such as
deposits or
loans, and would only be able to legally include the word ''"bank"'' in its name in its home state of
California with the approval of the California Department of Financial Institutions.
A similar example includes a company called ''Wine Banq'',
[Wine Banq, ] whose name clearly suggests it has nothing to do with the banking industry.
Naming laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as well as their interpretations. Notable counter-examples include
blood banks and
sperm bank
A sperm bank, semen bank, or cryobank is a facility or enterprise which purchases, stores and sells human semen. The semen is produced and sold by men who are known as sperm donors. The sperm is purchased by or for other persons for the purpose o ...
s.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banq (Term)
Banking