Bank charters have always differed from general corporate charters insofar as they grant special privileges and forbid certain activities by the chartered institutions. In addition, special prudential requirements have always applied to chartered banks. Perhaps the most important of these today is the imposition of minimum capital requirements on all insured depository institutions and bank holding companies.
Second, there is a variety of ways in which the attributes of financial markets and financial regulation affect the capital market discipline assumed in much corporate governance theory and corporate law.