vices a bank provides are checking accounts, which can be used like money to make payments and purchase goods and services; savings accounts and time deposits that can be used to save money for future use; loans that consumers and businesses can use to purchase goods and services; and basic cash management services such as check cashing and foreign currency exchange. Four types of banks specialize in offering these basic banking services: commercial banks, savings and loan associations, savings banks, and credit unions.
A broader definition of a bank is any financial institution that receives, collects, transfers, pays, exchanges, lends, invests, or safeguards money for its customers. This broader definition includes many other financial institutions that are not usually thought of as banks but which nevertheless provide one or more of these broadly defined banking services. These institutions include finance companies, investment companies, investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds, security brokers and dealers, mortgage companies, and real estate investment trusts.
This article, however, focuses on the narrower definition of a bank and the services provided by banks in Canada and the UNITED STATES. (For information on other financial institutions, Insurance and investment banking; and trust companies. ) Banking services are extremely important in a free market economy such as that found in Canada and the United States. Banking services serve two primary purposes. First, by supplying customers with the basic mediums-of-exchange (cash, checking accounts, and credit cards), banks play a key role in the way goods and services are purchased.
The Essay on Impact of Foreign Banks on Banking in Emerging Economies
Increased technology and innovation International banking in emerging–market have some advantages from the technology and innovation. The advanced technology and innovation system could even surpass the conventional technology and innovation. For example, they could improve productivity, increase in market and increase the competition and so on . Innovations in customer experience and superior ...
Without these familiar methods of payment, goods could only be exchanged by barter (trading good for another), which is extremely time-consuming and inefficient. Many of today’s banking services were first practiced in ancient Lydia, Phoenicia, China, and Greece, where trade and commerce flourished. The temples in Babylonia made loans from their treasuries as early as 2000 BC. The temples of ancient Greece served as safe-deposit vaults for the valuables of worshipers. The Greeks also coined money and developed a system of credit.
The Roman Empire had a highly developed banking system, and its bankers accepted deposits of money, made loans, and purchased mortgages. Shortly after the fall of Rome in AD 476, banking declined in Europe. The increase of trade in 13th-century Italy prompted the revival of banking. The moneychangers of the Italian states developed facilities for exchanging local and foreign currency. Soon merchants demanded other services, such as lending money, and gradually bank services were expanded. The first bank to offer most of the basic banking functions known today was the Bank of Barcelona in Spain.
Founded by merchants in 1401, this bank held deposits, exchanged currency, and carried out lending operations. It also is believed to have introduced the bank check. Three other early banks, each managed by a committee of city officials, were the Bank of Amsterdam (1609), the Bank of Venice (1587), and the Bank of Hamburg (1619).
These institutions laid the foundation for modern banks of deposit and transaction. For more than 300 years, banking on the European continent was in the hands of powerful statesmen and wealthy private bankers, such as the Medici family in Florence and the Foggers in Germany.
