A bank is a financial institution that accepts
deposits from the public and creates a
demand deposit while simultaneously making
loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through
capital markets.
Whereas banks play an important role in financial stability and the
economy of a country, most jurisdictions exercise a
high degree of regulation over banks. Most countries have institutionalized a system known as
fractional-reserve banking, under which banks hold liquid assets equal to only a portion of their current liabilities. In addition to other regulations intended to ensure
liquidity, banks are generally subject to
minimum capital requirements based on an international set of capital standards, the
Basel Accords. (Full article...)
The
passbook was the traditional record of savings account transactions before the use of the internet.
A savings account is a
bank account at a
retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked
debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, transactions on savings accounts were widely recorded in a
passbook, and were sometimes called passbook savings accounts, and
bank statements were not provided; however, currently such transactions are commonly recorded electronically and accessible online.
People deposit funds in savings account for a variety of reasons, including a safe place to hold their cash. Savings accounts normally pay interest as well: almost all of them accrue
compound interest over time. Several countries require savings accounts to be protected by
deposit insurance and some countries provide a government guarantee for at least a portion of the account balance. (Full article...)
The street was originally known in
Dutch as Het Cingel ("the Belt") when it was part of
New Amsterdam during the 17th century. An actual wall existed on the street from 1653 to 1699, and during the 18th century, the location served as a
slave market and
securities trading site, and from 1703 onwards the location of New York's first city hall,
Federal Hall. In the early 19th century, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but increasingly the latter predominated, and New York's financial industry became centered on Wall Street. During the 20th century, several
early skyscrapers were built on Wall Street, including
40 Wall Street, once the world's tallest building. (Full article...)
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A Christmas club is a special-purpose
savings account, first offered by various
banks and
credit unions in the United States beginning in the early 20th century, including the
Great Depression. Bank customers would deposit a set amount of money each week into a savings account, and receive the money back at the end of the year for
Christmas shopping. (Full article...)
Central banks in most
developed nations are usually set up to be institutionally independent from political interference, even though governments typically have governance rights over them, legislative bodies exercise scrutiny, and central banks frequently do show responsiveness to politics. (Full article...)
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A savings bank is a
financial institution that is not run on a profit-maximizing basis, and whose original or primary purpose is collecting deposits on
savings accounts that are invested on a low-risk basis and receive
interest. Savings banks have mostly existed as a separate category in
Europe.
Savings banks originated in late-18th Europe as a development of the
Enlightenment, and became a Europe-wide phenomenon in the first half of the 19th century. The trajectories of savings bank systems then diverged across European nations, variously leading to the formation of integrated banking groups, cohesive national networks, conversion into
cooperative banking or
commercial banking entities, and/or piecemeal consolidation with other credit institutions. In most countries, the surviving savings banks have private-sector status and no longer operate under a distinctive legislative framework; significant exceptions include Germany and Luxembourg, where savings banks are public-sector entities. (Full article...)
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A mutual savings bank is a
financial institution chartered by a
central or regional government, without capital stock, owned by its members who subscribe to a common fund. From this fund, claims, loans, etc., are paid. Profits after deductions are shared among the members. The institution is intended to provide a safe place for individual members to save and to
invest those savings in
mortgages,
loans,
stocks,
bonds and other
securities and to share in any profits or losses that result. (Full article...)
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Private banks are banks owned by either the individual or a general
partner(s) with limited partner(s). Private banks are not
incorporated. In any such case, creditors can look to both the "entirety of the bank's assets" as well as the entirety of the sole-proprietor's/general-partners' assets.
A universal bank is a type of
bank which participates in many kinds of banking activities and is both a
commercial bank and an
investment bank as well as providing other
financial services such as
insurance. These are also called full-service financial firms, although there can also be full-service investment banks which provide wealth and asset management, trading, underwriting, researching as well as financial advisory.
The concept is most relevant in the
United Kingdom and the
United States, where historically there was a distinction drawn between pure
investment banks and
commercial banks. In the US, this was a result of the
Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. In both countries, however, since the 1980s the regulatory barrier to the combination of investment banks and commercial banks has largely been removed, and a number of universal banks have emerged in both jurisdictions. (Full article...)
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A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many
clients withdraw their money from a
bank, because they believe
the bank may fail in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a
fractional-reserve banking system (where banks normally only keep a small proportion of their assets as cash), numerous customers withdraw cash from
deposit accounts with a financial institution at the same time because they believe that the financial institution is, or might become,
insolvent. When they transfer funds to another institution, it may be characterized as a
capital flight. As a bank run progresses, it may become a
self-fulfilling prophecy: as more people withdraw cash, the likelihood of default increases, triggering further withdrawals. This can destabilize the bank to the point where it runs out of cash and thus faces sudden
bankruptcy. To combat a bank run, a bank may acquire more cash from other banks or from the
central bank, or limit the amount of cash customers may withdraw, either by imposing a hard limit or by scheduling quick deliveries of cash, encouraging high-return
term deposits to reduce on-demand withdrawals or suspending withdrawals altogether.
A banking panic or bank panic is a
financial crisis that occurs when many banks suffer runs at the same time, as people suddenly try to convert their threatened deposits into cash or try to get out of their domestic banking system altogether. A systemic banking crisis is one where all or almost all of the banking capital in a country is wiped out. The resulting chain of bankruptcies can cause a long
economic recession as domestic businesses and consumers are starved of capital as the domestic banking system shuts down. According to former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman
Ben Bernanke, the
Great Depression was caused by the failure of the
Federal Reserve System to prevent deflation, and much of the economic damage was caused directly by bank runs. The cost of cleaning up a systemic banking crisis can be huge, with fiscal costs averaging 13% of
GDP and economic output losses averaging 20% of GDP for important crises from 1970 to 2007. (Full article...)
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Islamic banking, Islamic finance (
Arabic: مصرفية إسلاميةmasrifiyya 'islamia), or Sharia-compliant finance is
banking or
financing activity that complies with
Sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of
Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic finance include mudarabah (profit-sharing and loss-bearing), wadiah (safekeeping), musharaka (joint venture), murabahah (cost-plus), and ijarah (
leasing).
Sharia prohibits riba, or
usury, generally defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to riba). Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic
principles (e.g. pork or alcohol) is also haram ("sinful and prohibited"). (Full article...)
The Bank of Estonia (
Estonian: Eesti Pank) is the Estonian member of the
Eurosystem and has been the
monetary authority for
Estonia from 1919 to 2010, albeit with a long suspension between 1940 and 1991, issuing the
Estonian kroon. The bank doesn't translate its name to English but uses its Estonian name Eesti Pank in all English communications. (Full article...)
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Danske Bank A/S (pronounced[ˈtænˀskəˈpɑŋˀk],
lit.'Danish Bank') is a
Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major
retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail customers. Danske Bank was number 454 on the
Fortune Global 500 list for 2011. The largest shareholder with 21% of the share capital is A.P. Moller Holding, the investment holding company of the
Maersk family.
It was founded 5 October 1871 as Den Danske Landmandsbank, Hypothek- og Vexelbank i Kjøbenhavn ("The Danish Farmers' Bank,
Mortgage and
Exchange Bank of
Copenhagen"), and was commonly known as Landmandsbanken ("the Farmers' Bank"). In 1976, the bank changed name to Den Danske Bank ("The Danish Bank"), and the current name was adopted in 2000. (Full article...)
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (株式会社三井住友銀行, Kabushiki-gaisha Mitsui Sumitomo Ginkō, SMBC) is a Japanese multinational banking financial services institution owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc (株式会社三井住友フィナンシャルグループ, SMFG). It is headquartered in
Yurakucho,
Chiyoda, Tokyo,
Japan. The group operates in retail, corporate, and investment banking segment worldwide. It provides financial products and services to a wide range of clients, including individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, financial institutions and public sector entities. Since 2011, it has been included into the
Financial Stability Board's
list of global systemically important banks.
Chemical's logo, adopted from Manufacturers Hanover after the banks' merger
Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in
New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world.
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is a key entity of the decentralized
Raiffeisen Banking Group in
Austria, acting both as the latter's domestic central financial entity and as the holding company for all the group's operations outside of Austria. The bank is listed on the
Wiener Börse. Its major shareholders are the Raiffeisen Banking Group's eight regional banks (Raiffeisen-Landesbanken), which are bound by a
shareholders' agreement and together hold a majority of RBI's equity.
Shinhan Bank started as a small enterprise with a capital stock of KRW 25.0 billion, 279 employees, and three branches on July 7, 1982. Today, it has transformed itself into a large bank, boasting total assets of KRW 176.9
trillion, equity capital of KRW 9.7 trillion, 10,741 employees, and 1,026 branches as of 2006. As of June 30, 2016, Shinhan Bank had total assets of
₩298.945 trillion (equivalent to ₩304.658 trillion or
US$269.507 billion in 2017)[1] , total deposits of
₩221.047 trillion (equivalent to ₩225.271 trillion or
US$199.28 billion in 2017)[1] and loans of
₩212.228 trillion (equivalent to ₩216.283 trillion or
US$191.329 billion in 2017)[1]. Shinhan Bank is the main subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group (SFG). (Full article...)
Following aggressive international expansion, ABN AMRO was acquired and broken up in 2007–2008 by a consortium of European banks, including
Fortis which intended to take over its formed operations in the
Benelux region. Fortis came under stress in the autumn of 2008, and was in turn broken up into separate national entities; the Dutch operations, namely
Fortis Bank Nederland and the former ABN AMRO activities that Fortis had planned to absorb, were nationalized, restructured, and renamed ABN AMRO in mid-2010. On 20 November 2015, the Dutch government publicly re-listed the company through an
IPO and sold 20 percent of the shares to the public. (Full article...)
Image 35Statesman
Jan van den Brink was instrumental in the merger of Amsterdamsche Bank and Rotterdamsche Bank in 1964, and remained on the bank's board until 1978 (from AMRO Bank)