§ 1754 Office Class Change Rules

• •Changing a lower‑class office to a higher‑class office counts as starting a new higher‑class office, not closing the old one.
• •Changing a higher‑class office to a lower‑class office counts as closing the higher‑class office, not starting a new lower‑class office.
• •To downgrade, the bank must first get approval to close the higher‑class office, meet all conditions, and then receive a license to run the lower‑class office.

A foreign bank has a small branch in the city and wants to turn it into a big branch, or it has a big branch and wants to shrink it to a small one.

If the bank makes the small branch into a big one, the law says it’s like opening a new big branch and the old small branch is still considered open. If the bank makes the big branch into a small one, the law says the big branch is closed and the bank must get a special license to keep the new small branch.