Non-bank bank Definition
Slang for a kind of financial institution that in the 1980s did not meet the legal definition of a commercial bank, and thus avoided the prohibition against branching across state lines. It avoided being classified as a commercial bank by not engaging in one of the two lines of business cited in the law to define commercial banks; demand deposits or commercial loans. It may have offered a range of bank services but engaged in only one of the two activities that legally defined a commercial bank. The non-bank bank loophole was closed by the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987.