Articles of association in the context of "Shareholders"

Regulatory colleges are legal entities in Canada charged with serving the public interest by regulating the practice of a profession. They are state-sanctioned to regulate the practice of their professions within Canada.

Most regulatory colleges are established by an act of parliament instead of through articles of association or incorporation, and usually do not require registration in order to acquire juridical personality. The legislation that creates a regulatory college is usually provincial rather than federal, since the Canadian constitution makes the regulation of most professional activity a provincial rather than federal area of responsibility. They are legislated as requirements to work in a given field. For example, no worker in Ontario may work in a skilled trade classified as a "compulsory trade" without membership in the Ontario College of Trades.

A congressional charter is a law passed by the United States Congress that states the mission, authority, and activities of a group. Congress has issued corporate charters since 1791 and the laws that issue them are codified in Title 36 of the United States Code. The first charter issued by Congress was for the First Bank of the United States.

The relationship between Congress and an organization so recognized is largely symbolic, and is intended to lend the organization the legitimacy of being officially sanctioned by the U.S. government. Congress does not oversee or supervise organizations it has so chartered, aside from receiving a yearly financial statement.

Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt instrument, and is generally considered a hybrid instrument. Preferred stocks are senior (i.e., higher ranking) to common stock but subordinate to bonds in terms of claim (or rights to their share of the assets of the company, given that such assets are payable to the returnee stock bond) and may have priority over common stock (ordinary shares) in the payment of dividends and upon liquidation. Terms of the preferred stock are described in the issuing company's articles of association or articles of incorporation.

Like bonds, preferred stocks are rated by major credit rating agencies. Their ratings are generally lower than those of bonds, because preferred dividends do not carry the same guarantees as interest payments from bonds, and because preferred-stock holders' claims are junior to those of all creditors.