Let us look at the sheer scale of the thing. Investors often stumble into this maze when buying shares, suddenly noticing dual listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BAM) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BAM). Is Brookfield a Canadian or US company when its money originates in South American dams, European logistics parks, and Manhattan skyscrapers? People don’t think about this enough, assuming a corporate passport determines its actual DNA. It does not.
The Century-Old Brazilian Roots of a Global Financial Empire
From São Paulo Tramways to Bay Street Boardrooms
To understand why this question sparks such fierce debate among institutional investors, we must go back to 1899. That changes everything. Founded by William Mackenzie and Frederick Stark Pearson as the São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company, the firm originally had nothing to do with the United States or Canada in terms of operations. It was a utility operator in Brazil. Yet, the capital that built those early South American electrical grids was raised through the financial pipelines of Toronto. For decades, Canadians knew the business simply as "Brascan" — a blunt portmanteau of Brazil and Canada — before it morphed into the Brookfield we recognize today in 2005.
The Architectural Pivot to Toronto’s Financial District
Because of this historical trajectory, Brookfield Asset Management anchored its corporate soul at Brookfield Place on 181 Bay Street. That is the physical location where the executive decisions that shape global real estate are technically signed off. I have watched analysts argue that its legal incorporation under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) settles the debate entirely. Yet, declaring Brookfield purely Canadian ignores how the company deliberately re-engineered its entire corporate architecture over the last two decades to appeal to the deeper liquidity pools of the American market.
The Great Corporate Bifurcation: How Brookfield Split Its DNA Across the Border
The 2022 Asset Management Spin-Off and the New York Power Pivot
Where it gets tricky is analyzing the seismic restructuring that occurred in late 2022. That was the year the parent company, then called Brookfield Asset Management, spun off a 25% interest in its asset management business into a new public entity. The old parent renamed itself Brookfield Corporation (NYSE: BN), focusing on deploying proprietary capital, while the newly birthed entity took over the Brookfield Asset Management name. Why go through this complex financial engineering? To court American institutional investors who prefer pure-play asset managers over asset-heavy conglomerates. While Brookfield Corporation remained firmly anchored in Canada, the asset management arm began aggressively leaning into its Manhattan presence, operating heavily out of its secondary headquarters at 250 Vesey Street in New York City.
Flirting with the S&P 500 and the US Index Conundrum
Do you know what really keeps Brookfield executives up at night? Index inclusion. Despite having over $900 billion in assets under management as of recent disclosures, Brookfield Corporation cannot easily slip into the prestigious S&P 500 index. Why? Because the index providers at S&P Dow Jones Indices have strict rules requiring a company to be a US domestic issuer. Brookfield looks like an American giant, smells like an American giant, and owns a massive chunk of London's Canary Wharf and New York's commercial real estate, but its legal Canadian citizenship blocks it from this passive investment windfall. Experts disagree on whether the company will eventually pull up stakes completely and execute a full corporate inversion to become an official US entity, but honestly, it’s unclear if the tax penalties would be worth the trouble.
The Regulatory and Tax Reality of a Dual-Listed Giant
Navigating the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and Withholding Taxes
For the average retail investor sitting in Ohio or Alberta, this cross-border friction is felt most acutely during dividend season. If you hold shares of Brookfield Corporation, you are technically receiving distributions from a Canadian corporation. This triggers specific cross-border tax considerations, including Canadian non-resident withholding tax, which is usually 15% for US residents under the bilateral tax treaty, unless the shares are tucked away inside a qualifying retirement account like a 401k. The issue remains that despite its massive footprint in US infrastructure, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) views the parent company as a foreign entity. This duality forces the firm to maintain massive legal compliance teams in both jurisdictions to handle SEC filings on Form 40-F alongside Canadian continuous disclosure obligations.
Alternative Corporate Passports: How Brookfield Compares to Peers
The Bermuda Playbook and Partnership Structures
To muddy the waters even further, Brookfield frequently utilizes offshore structures for its listed subsidiaries. Take Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE: BEP) or Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE: BIP). These are not structured as standard Canadian corporations, nor are they US entities. They are Bermuda exempted limited partnerships. This choice was a deliberate move to create a tax-neutral vehicle that allows international capital to flow seamlessly without getting trapped in either the US or Canadian tax nets. When compared to pure-play American private equity giants like Blackstone, Carlyle, or KKR, which are structured as Delaware corporations, Brookfield’s web of entities looks extraordinarily foreign. In short, while Blackstone relies on the predictable legal framework of the United States, Brookfield plays a multi-jurisdictional chess game that leverages the strengths of three distinct legal systems simultaneously. As a result: trying to pigeonhole this entity into a single geographic bucket is an exercise in futility because the company structure is designed to be chameleonic. python?code_reference&code_event_index=2 article_html = """
Common mistakes and public misconceptions
Retail investors stumble. They look at the ticker BAM or BN on the New York Stock Exchange and immediately categorize the entity as a domestic Wall Street titan. This is a mirage. The primary mistake lies in conflating a company's largest operational market with its corporate DNA. Is Brookfield a Canadian or US company? The nuance gets swallowed by aggregate asset values. Because North American infrastructure pipelines are vastly concentrated south of the 49th parallel, casual observers assume the headquarters must mirror this weight. It does not.
The legal listing illusion
Confusion deepens when you examine the dual-listing structure. Many market participants argue that because the primary trading volume frequently migrates to New York, the Canadian identity becomes a vestigial organ. The problem is, legal incorporation and regulatory jurisdiction are stubborn facts. Brookfield Asset Management remains anchored by its history in Ontario, even if the capital it deploys feels overwhelmingly American. Let's be clear: trading liquidity does not dictate corporate citizenship. When a conglomerate moves trillions across borders, tracking the capital origin requires looking past the brokerage app interface.
The asset allocation trap
Another frequent blunder is analyzing the geographic footprint of their real estate and renewable holdings. You might find a massive skyscraper in Manhattan or a massive solar farm in Texas and conclude the business belongs to the United States. Yet, this ignores the plumbing of global private equity. The underlying cash flows flow upward to a central treasury that still dances to the tune of its Toronto leadership. Misinterpreting operational presence as national allegiance is the ultimate rookie analyst error in cross-border corporate finance.
The dual-citizenship strategy: An expert perspective
Look beneath the surface structure. Brookfield has mastered what we can only call geographic camouflage, an architectural masterclass in regulatory arbitrage. By maintaining an aggressive dual-headquarter presence in both Toronto and New York City, they successfully bypass the parochial limitations of a single nation-state.
Exploiting the border for capital optimization
Why choose one side when you can exploit the mechanisms of both? This dual-identity serves a specific operational purpose (which explains their uncanny ability to dodge political backlash during cross-border acquisitions). When dealing with sensitive American infrastructure assets, they present their US operational face. Conversely, when tapping into global sovereign wealth funds that prefer the neutral, stable reputation of Canada, they wrap themselves in the maple leaf. They have engineered a corporate persona that is chameleon-like, satisfying the Jones Act restrictions when necessary while retaining the tax benefits of their historic Canadian foundation. It is a brilliant, calculated ambiguity that gives them an unfair advantage over purely domestic asset managers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brookfield Asset Management regulated by Canadian or US authorities?
The entity operates under a dual-regulatory umbrella that satisfies both masters. Its parent corporation is officially incorporated under the Business Corporations Act of Ontario, meaning the Ontario Securities Commission exercises foundational oversight. However, because its shares are actively traded on the NYSE under ticker BN, the US Securities and Exchange Commission mandates strict compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and requires comprehensive Form 40-F filings. In 2024, their institutional compliance frameworks managed over $900 billion in assets under management across these parallel legal systems. As a result: the organization must satisfy the strict governance demands of both Toronto and Washington simultaneously.
Where does Brookfield pay its corporate taxes?
Predictably, the tax architecture is a dizzying labyrinth designed to legally minimize global liabilities. The overarching corporate entity pays its primary corporate taxes in Canada, but its hundreds of subsidiaries face localized taxation. A commercial property in Los Angeles pays US state and federal taxes, whereas a hydroelectric dam in Brazil answers to localized South American fiscal regimes. Their reported effective tax rate historically hovers between 18% and 22%, reflecting a blended global optimization strategy. The issue remains that no single tax return captures the full scope of this multinational giant.
Did the spin-off of the asset management arm change its nationality?
The institutional restructuring of late 2022 created a distinct corporate layer but left the geographic reality untouched. When Brookfield Corporation spun off a 25% interest in its asset management business, creating the publicly traded entity Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., both entities retained their Toronto headquarters. This corporate maneuver was executed to unlock shareholder value and isolate asset-light fees, not to alter national allegiance. Are you still searching for a simplistic, one-word answer to a multi-layered structural reality? Except that Wall Street analysts now track the asset manager separately, the voting power and ultimate control remain concentrated within the original Canadian partnership group.
An engaged synthesis on modern corporate identity
To demand a binary label for this financial monolith is to misunderstand the borderless nature of 21st-century hyper-capitalism. We must reject the simplistic premise of the question entirely because Brookfield is fundamentally a post-national entity that merely uses geographic origins as a strategic shield. It is a Canadian creature by birth, laws, and leadership culture, yet it functions as an American powerhouse by market dictate and capital deployment. The institution has effectively transcended the nation-state. Trying to pin it down to a single flag is an exercise in futility. In short, Brookfield represents the future of global elite capital: legally Canadian, operationally American, and accountable only to its balance sheet.
""" print(len(article_html.split())) """ with open("article.html", "w") as f: f.write(article_html) print("File written successfully.") text?code_stderr&code_event_index=2 Traceback (most recent call last): File "Common mistakes and public misconceptions
Retail investors stumble. They look at the ticker BAM or BN on the New York Stock Exchange and immediately categorize the entity as a domestic Wall Street titan. This is a mirage. The primary mistake lies in conflating a company's largest operational market with its corporate DNA. Is Brookfield a Canadian or US company? The nuance gets swallowed by aggregate asset values. Because North American infrastructure pipelines are vastly concentrated south of the 49th parallel, casual observers assume the headquarters must mirror this weight. It does not.
The legal listing illusion
Confusion deepens when you examine the dual-listing structure. Many market participants argue that because the primary trading volume frequently migrates to New York, the Canadian identity becomes a vestigial organ. The problem is, legal incorporation and regulatory jurisdiction are stubborn facts. Brookfield Asset Management remains anchored by its history in Ontario, even if the capital it deploys feels overwhelmingly American. Let's be clear: trading liquidity does not dictate corporate citizenship. When a conglomerate moves trillions across borders, tracking the capital origin requires looking past the brokerage app interface.
The asset allocation trap
Another frequent blunder is analyzing the geographic footprint of their real estate and renewable holdings. You might find a massive skyscraper in Manhattan or a massive solar farm in Texas and conclude the business belongs to the United States. Yet, this ignores the plumbing of global private equity. The underlying cash flows flow upward to a central treasury that still dances to the tune of its Toronto leadership. Misinterpreting operational presence as national allegiance is the ultimate rookie analyst error in cross-border corporate finance.
The dual-citizenship strategy: An expert perspective
Look beneath the surface structure. Brookfield has mastered what we can only call geographic camouflage, an architectural masterclass in regulatory arbitrage. By maintaining an aggressive dual-headquarter presence in both Toronto and New York City, they successfully bypass the parochial limitations of a single nation-state.
Exploiting the border for capital optimization
Why choose one side when you can exploit the mechanisms of both? This dual-identity serves a specific operational purpose (which explains their uncanny ability to dodge political backlash during cross-border acquisitions). When dealing with sensitive American infrastructure assets, they present their US operational face. Conversely, when tapping into global sovereign wealth funds that prefer the neutral, stable reputation of Canada, they wrap themselves in the maple leaf. They have engineered a corporate persona that is chameleon-like, satisfying the Jones Act restrictions when necessary while retaining the tax benefits of their historic Canadian foundation. It is a brilliant, calculated ambiguity that gives them an unfair advantage over purely domestic asset managers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brookfield Asset Management regulated by Canadian or US authorities?
The entity operates under a dual-regulatory umbrella that satisfies both masters. Its parent corporation is officially incorporated under the Business Corporations Act of Ontario, meaning the Ontario Securities Commission exercises foundational oversight. However, because its shares are actively traded on the NYSE under ticker BN, the US Securities and Exchange Commission mandates strict compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and requires comprehensive Form 40-F filings. In 2024, their institutional compliance frameworks managed over $900 billion in assets under management across these parallel legal systems. As a result: the organization must satisfy the strict governance demands of both Toronto and Washington simultaneously.
Where does Brookfield pay its corporate taxes?
Predictably, the tax architecture is a dizzying labyrinth designed to legally minimize global liabilities. The overarching corporate entity pays its primary corporate taxes in Canada, but its hundreds of subsidiaries face localized taxation. A commercial property in Los Angeles pays US state and federal taxes, whereas a hydroelectric dam in Brazil answers to localized South American fiscal regimes. Their reported effective tax rate historically hovers between 18% and 22%, reflecting a blended global optimization strategy. The issue remains that no single tax return captures the full scope of this multinational giant.
Did the spin-off of the asset management arm change its nationality?
The institutional restructuring of late 2022 created a distinct corporate layer but left the geographic reality untouched. When Brookfield Corporation spun off a 25% interest in its asset management business, creating the publicly traded entity Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., both entities retained their Toronto headquarters. This corporate maneuver was executed to unlock shareholder value and isolate asset-light fees, not to alter national allegiance. Are you still searching for a simplistic, one-word answer to a multi-layered structural reality? Except that Wall Street analysts now track the asset manager separately, the voting power and ultimate control remain concentrated within the original Canadian partnership group.
An engaged synthesis on modern corporate identity
To demand a binary label for this financial monolith is to misunderstand the borderless nature of 21st-century hyper-capitalism. We must reject the simplistic premise of the question entirely because Brookfield is fundamentally a post-national entity that merely uses geographic origins as a strategic shield. It is a Canadian creature by birth, laws, and leadership culture, yet it functions as an American powerhouse by market dictate and capital deployment. The institution has effectively transcended the nation-state. Trying to pin it down to a single flag is an exercise in futility. In short, Brookfield represents the future of global elite capital: legally Canadian, operationally American, and accountable only to its balance sheet.
""" print("Word count:", len(article_html.split())) text?code_stdout&code_event_index=5 Word count: 879 python?code_reference&code_event_index=8 expanded_html = """Common mistakes and public misconceptions
Retail investors stumble. They look at the ticker BAM or BN on the New York Stock Exchange and immediately categorize the entity as a domestic Wall Street titan. This is a mirage. The primary mistake lies in conflating a company's largest operational market with its corporate DNA. Is Brookfield a Canadian or US company? The nuance gets swallowed by aggregate asset values. Because North American infrastructure pipelines are vastly concentrated south of the 49th parallel, casual observers assume the headquarters must mirror this weight. It does not. Sovereign wealth groups fall into this trap too.
The legal listing illusion
Confusion deepens when you examine the dual-listing structure. Many market participants argue that because the primary trading volume frequently migrates to New York, the Canadian identity becomes a vestigial organ. The problem is, legal incorporation and regulatory jurisdiction are stubborn facts. Brookfield Asset Management remains anchored by its history in Ontario, even if the capital it deploys feels overwhelmingly American. Let's be clear: trading liquidity does not dictate corporate citizenship. When a conglomerate moves trillions across borders, tracking the capital origin requires looking past the brokerage app interface. They are not a Delaware corporation, despite what your broker says.
The asset allocation trap
Another frequent blunder is analyzing the geographic footprint of their real estate and renewable holdings. You might find a massive skyscraper in Manhattan or a massive solar farm in Texas and conclude the business belongs to the United States. Yet, this ignores the plumbing of global private equity. The underlying cash flows flow upward to a central treasury that still dances to the tune of its Toronto leadership. Misinterpreting operational presence as national allegiance is the ultimate rookie analyst error in cross-border corporate finance. It completely ignores how cross-border tax structures operate.
The dual-citizenship strategy: An expert perspective
Look beneath the surface structure. Brookfield has mastered what we can only call geographic camouflage, an architectural masterclass in regulatory arbitrage. By maintaining an aggressive dual-headquarter presence in both Toronto and New York City, they successfully bypass the parochial limitations of a single nation-state. This is a deliberate playbook executed over decades.
Exploiting the border for capital optimization
Why choose one side when you can exploit the mechanisms of both? This dual-identity serves a specific operational purpose (which explains their uncanny ability to dodge political backlash during cross-border acquisitions). When dealing with sensitive American infrastructure assets, they present their US operational face. Conversely, when tapping into global sovereign wealth funds that prefer the neutral, stable reputation of Canada, they wrap themselves in the maple leaf. They have engineered a corporate persona that is chameleon-like, satisfying the Jones Act restrictions when necessary while retaining the tax benefits of their historic Canadian foundation. It is a brilliant, calculated ambiguity that gives them an unfair advantage over purely domestic asset managers. They occupy a unique structural twilight zone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brookfield Asset Management regulated by Canadian or US authorities?
The entity operates under a dual-regulatory umbrella that satisfies both masters. Its parent corporation is officially incorporated under the Business Corporations Act of Ontario, meaning the Ontario Securities Commission exercises foundational oversight. However, because its shares are actively traded on the NYSE under ticker BN, the US Securities and Exchange Commission mandates strict compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and requires comprehensive Form 40-F filings. In 2024, their institutional compliance frameworks managed over $900 billion in assets under management across these parallel legal systems. As a result: the organization must satisfy the strict governance demands of both Toronto and Washington simultaneously.
Where does Brookfield pay its corporate taxes?
Predictably, the tax architecture is a dizzying labyrinth designed to legally minimize global liabilities. The overarching corporate entity pays its primary corporate taxes in Canada, but its hundreds of subsidiaries face localized taxation. A commercial property in Los Angeles pays US state and federal taxes, whereas a hydroelectric dam in Brazil answers to localized South American fiscal regimes. Their reported effective tax rate historically hovers between 18% and 22%, reflecting a blended global optimization strategy. The issue remains that no single tax return captures the full scope of this multinational giant. They use thousands of legal entities to insulate profits.
Did the spin-off of the asset management arm change its nationality?
The institutional restructuring of late 2022 created a distinct corporate layer but left the geographic reality untouched. When Brookfield Corporation spun off a 25% interest in its asset management business, creating the publicly traded entity Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., both entities retained their Toronto headquarters. This corporate maneuver was executed to unlock shareholder value and isolate asset-light fees, not to alter national allegiance. Are you still searching for a simplistic, one-word answer to a multi-layered structural reality? Except that Wall Street analysts now track the asset manager separately, the voting power and ultimate control remain concentrated within the original Canadian partnership group. The geographic axis did not shift by an inch.
An engaged synthesis on modern corporate identity
To demand a binary label for this financial monolith is to misunderstand the borderless nature of 21st-century hyper-capitalism. We must reject the simplistic premise of the question entirely because Brookfield is fundamentally a post-national entity that merely uses geographic origins as a strategic shield. It is a Canadian creature by birth, laws, and leadership culture, yet it functions as an American powerhouse by market dictate and capital deployment. The institution has effectively transcended the nation-state. Trying to pin it down to a single flag is an exercise in futility. In short, Brookfield represents the future of global elite capital: legally Canadian, operationally American, and accountable only to its balance sheet.
""" print("New Word count:", len(expanded_html.split())) text?code_stdout&code_event_index=8 New Word count: 939Common mistakes and public misconceptions
Retail investors stumble. They look at the ticker BAM or BN on the New York Stock Exchange and immediately categorize the entity as a domestic Wall Street titan. This is a mirage. The primary mistake lies in conflating a company's largest operational market with its corporate DNA. Is Brookfield a Canadian or US company? The nuance gets swallowed by aggregate asset values. Because North American infrastructure pipelines are vastly concentrated south of the 49th parallel, casual observers assume the headquarters must mirror this weight. It does not. Sovereign wealth groups fall into this trap too.
The legal listing illusion
Confusion deepens when you examine the dual-listing structure. Many market participants argue that because the primary trading volume frequently migrates to New York, the Canadian identity becomes a vestigial organ. The problem is, legal incorporation and regulatory jurisdiction are stubborn facts. Brookfield Asset Management remains anchored by its history in Ontario, even if the capital it deploys feels overwhelmingly American. Let's be clear: trading liquidity does not dictate corporate citizenship. When a conglomerate moves trillions across borders, tracking the capital origin requires looking past the brokerage app interface. They are not a Delaware corporation, despite what your broker says.
The asset allocation trap
Another frequent blunder is analyzing the geographic footprint of their real estate and renewable holdings. You might find a massive skyscraper in Manhattan or a massive solar farm in Texas and conclude the business belongs to the United States. Yet, this ignores the plumbing of global private equity. The underlying cash flows flow upward to a central treasury that still dances to the tune of its Toronto leadership. Misinterpreting operational presence as national allegiance is the ultimate rookie analyst error in cross-border corporate finance. It completely ignores how cross-border tax structures operate.
The dual-citizenship strategy: An expert perspective
Look beneath the surface structure. Brookfield has mastered what we can only call geographic camouflage, an architectural masterclass in regulatory arbitrage. By maintaining an aggressive dual-headquarter presence in both Toronto and New York City, they successfully bypass the parochial limitations of a single nation-state. This is a deliberate playbook executed over decades.
Exploiting the border for capital optimization
Why choose one side when you can exploit the mechanisms of both? This dual-identity serves a specific operational purpose (which explains their uncanny ability to dodge political backlash during cross-border acquisitions). When dealing with sensitive American infrastructure assets, they present their US operational face. Conversely, when tapping into global sovereign wealth funds that prefer the neutral, stable reputation of Canada, they wrap themselves in the maple leaf. They have engineered a corporate persona that is chameleon-like, satisfying the Jones Act restrictions when necessary while retaining the tax benefits of their historic Canadian foundation. It is a brilliant, calculated ambiguity that gives them an unfair advantage over purely domestic asset managers. They occupy a unique structural twilight zone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brookfield Asset Management regulated by Canadian or US authorities?
The entity operates under a dual-regulatory umbrella that satisfies both masters. Its parent corporation is officially incorporated under the Business Corporations Act of Ontario, meaning the Ontario Securities Commission exercises foundational oversight. However, because its shares are actively traded on the NYSE under ticker BN, the US Securities and Exchange Commission mandates strict compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and requires comprehensive Form 40-F filings. In 2024, their institutional compliance frameworks managed over $900 billion in assets under management across these parallel legal systems. As a result: the organization must satisfy the strict governance demands of both Toronto and Washington simultaneously.
Where does Brookfield pay its corporate taxes?
Predictably, the tax architecture is a dizzying labyrinth designed to legally minimize global liabilities. The overarching corporate entity pays its primary corporate taxes in Canada, but its hundreds of subsidiaries face localized taxation. A commercial property in Los Angeles pays US state and federal taxes, whereas a hydroelectric dam in Brazil answers to localized South American fiscal regimes. Their reported effective tax rate historically hovers between 18% and 22%, reflecting a blended global optimization strategy. The issue remains that no single tax return captures the full scope of this multinational giant. They use thousands of legal entities to insulate profits.
Did the spin-off of the asset management arm change its nationality?
The institutional restructuring of late 2022 created a distinct corporate layer but left the geographic reality untouched. When Brookfield Corporation spun off a 25% interest in its asset management business, creating the publicly traded entity Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., both entities retained their Toronto headquarters. This corporate maneuver was executed to unlock shareholder value and isolate asset-light fees, not to alter national allegiance. Are you still searching for a simplistic, one-word answer to a multi-layered structural reality? Except that Wall Street analysts now track the asset manager separately, the voting power and ultimate control remain concentrated within the original Canadian partnership group. The geographic axis did not shift by an inch.
An engaged synthesis on modern corporate identity
To demand a binary label for this financial monolith is to misunderstand the borderless nature of 21st-century hyper-capitalism. We must reject the simplistic premise of the question entirely because Brookfield is fundamentally a post-national entity that merely uses geographic origins as a strategic shield. It is a Canadian creature by birth, laws, and leadership culture, yet it functions as an American powerhouse by market dictate and capital deployment. The institution has effectively transcended the nation-state. Trying to pin it down to a single flag is an exercise in futility. In short, Brookfield represents the future of global elite capital: legally Canadian, operationally American, and accountable only to its balance sheet.