Definition of "national bank" [national bank]

• A bank in a system of federally chartered privately owned banks in the United States, each required by law to be an investing member of its district Federal Reserve Bank and insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (noun)
• A bank associated with national finances and usually owned or controlled by a government. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The latter were transformed by degrees into ordinary banks, and in 1889 only one national bank remained, that of Japan, which to-day centralizes all Japanese fiduciary circulation."