Normal Diversity Rules Apply To National Banking Associations

28 USC § 1348 says that national banking associations are "citizens of the States in which they are respectively located." Does this mean that for diversity purposes (28 USC § 1332), a national banking association is a citizen of every state where it has a branch office? No, says the U.S. Fifth Circuit in Horton v. Bank One, N.A., decided yesterday. The court interprets § 1348 as applying the normal rules of diversity to national banking association. "We hold that the definition of “located” is limited to the national bank’s principal place of business and the state listed in its organization certificate and its articles of association." Slip op. at 19.

Posted by RPW at October 6, 2004 10:07 AM