Banking Charter

The legal authorization required to operate as a bank in the US — either federal (OCC-issued, nationally chartered) or state-issued. Acquiring one from scratch is nearly impossible; the practical path is to buy a small existing bank and inherit the charter. That's exactly what William Hockey did: used Margin Lending against his Plaid stock to purchase a small bank, then rebuilt it as Column. The charter is what lets Column hold FDIC-insured deposits directly instead of renting them from a partner bank.