Subsidiaries or Branches: Does One Size Fit All?

Regulations of both home and host countries influence the choice of legal form of business model. Italian and Canadian banks, for example, are required to seek prior approval by their home regulator in order to open an overseas branch, and the Bank of Spain can refuse a bank’s application to open a branch on a wider set of criteria than in the case of subsidiaries (for EU-domiciled banks, these additional constraints do not apply for affiliate operations in EU member states given the EU single passport regime). In New Zealand, foreign banks are required to operate through subsidiaries to provide...