A branch office is an outlet of a company or, more generally, an organization that – unlike a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

– does not constitute a separate legal entity, while being physically separated from the organization's main office. Branching is particularly widespread in

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

and other financial institutions, where the products' complexity requires local offices to act more like an agency than as a separate company. A branch structure exposes the owning company to full taxability and

legal liability In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agenci ...

in regard to the branch office's operations.

References

{{Authority control Types of business entity