A bank is a financial institution and a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending

activities, either directly or throughcapital markets. A bank connects customers with capital deficits to customers with capital surpluses. The business of banking is in many English common law countries not defined by statute but by common law, the definition above. In other English common law jurisdictions there are statutory definitions of the business of banking or banking business. When looking at these definitions it is important to keep in mind that they are defining the business of banking for the purposes of the legislation, and not necessarily in general. In particular, most of the definitions are from legislation that has the purposes of entry regulating and supervising banks rather than regulating the actual business of banking. However, in many cases the statutory definition closely mirrors the common law one. Examples of statutory definitions:

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1st Source Bank 1st Summit Bank A.J. Smith Federal Savings Bank Abbey National plc Abbotsford State Bank ABN AMRO Bank N.V. Banco Nacional de Bolivia Abrams Centre National Bank Adams Bank & Trust Adams National Bank Adirondack Trust Company AIG Private Bank Africa Banking Group Albank Alberta Treasury Branches All-Ukrainian Joint-Stock Bank Allahabad Bank Alliance Bank Alliance Bank Allied Irish Bank Alpine Banks of Colorado Amagerbanken Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA)

USA North America USA England

Netherlands Bolivia

USA

North America Switzerland Africa

Canada Ukraina India USA

New York

Denmark Africa

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Amarillo National Bank Ambank Amcore Bank American Express Bank GmbH American Bank & Trust Company, Inc. American Bank of Commerce Absolut Bank American Exchange Bank American Federal Bank American Merchant Center Inc. American National Bank American State Bank ANB Corporation AnchorBank ANZ Banking Group APS Bank Ltd. Arab Bank Arab Banking Corporation Aargauische Kantonalbank ANB Financial Arvest Bank Group ASB Bank Associated Banc-Corp Astoria Financial Corp. Auburn State Bank Agricultural Bank of China Al-Rajhi Bank Ballston Spa National Bank (BSNB) Banamex Banc Agricol I Comercial D'Andorra Banca delle Marche Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino Italy Switzerland USA USA New Zealand USA USA USA China Saudi Arabia USA Mexico Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Germany LA, USA TX, USA Russia North America North America CA, USA North America North America North America USA Australia Bellmead, USA

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Banca di Credito di Trieste Banca di Roma Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A. Banca Passadore e C. S.p.A Banca Popolare dell'Etruria e del Lazio

Italy Italy Italy Italy Italy www.wcb.net Australia Germany www.westpac.com.au www.westlb.de www.wilberbank.com www.willowgrovebank.com www.wsfsbank.com www.wilmingtontrust.com www.wnsb.com www.wintrust.com www.woronoco.com www.wyomingbank.com www.yanb.com www.yonkers.com Mariposa, CA, USA USA Switzerland Malaysia Malaysia Pakistan Pakistan Austria Italy Romania Costa Rica USA USA Spain www.yosemitebank.com www.zionsbank.com www.zhkb.ch www.affinbank.com.my www.ambg.com.my www.abnamro.com.pk www.askaribank.com.pk www.ba-ca.com www.carime.it www.bcr.ro www.bncr.fi.cr www.dedhamsavings.com www.amsouth.com www.bde.es

1261 Western Commerce Bank 1262 Westpac Banking Corp 1263 WestLB Westdeutsche Landesbank 1264 Wilber National Bank 1265 Willow Grove Bancorp 1266 Wilmington Savings Fund Society WSFS Bank

1267 Wilmington Trust 1268 Winona National Savings Bank 1269 Wintrust Financial Corporation 1270 Woronoco Savings Bank 1271 Wyoming Bank & Trust 1272 Yardville National Bank 1273 Yonkers Savings and Loan Association

1274 Yosemite Bank 1275 Zions Bank 1276 Zrcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) 1277 Affin Bank 1278 AmBank 1279 ABN AMRO Pakistan 1280 Askari Commercial Bank Ltd. 1281 Bank Austria Creditanstalt 1282 Banca Carime 1283 Banca Comerciala Romana 1284 Banco Nacional de Costa Rica 1285 Dedham Savings 1286 AmSouth Bancorporation 1287 Bank of Spain

1288 Banca d'Italia 1289 Banco del Pacifico 1290 Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd

Italy Ecuador Malaysia

www.bancaditalia.it www.bp.fin.ec

Types of institutions: Bankers' bank Building Society Cooperative bank Credit union Ethical bank Industrial loan company Islamic banking Mortgage bank Mutual savings bank Offshore banking Person-to-person lending Savings and loan association Savings bank Sparebank

Types of banks
Banks' activities can be divided into retail banking, dealing directly with individuals and small businesses; business banking, providing services to mid-market business; corporate banking, directed at large business entities; private banking, providing wealth management services to high net worth individuals and families; and investment banking, relating to activities on the financial markets. Most banks are profit-making, private enterprises. However, some are owned by government, or are non-profit organizations. [edit]Types

of retail banks

National Bank of the Republic, Salt Lake City 1908

ATM Al-Rajhi Bank

National Copper Bank, Salt Lake City 1911

Commercial bank: the term used for a normal bank to distinguish it from an investment bank. After the Great Depression, the U.S. Congress required that banks only engage in banking activities, whereas investment banks were limited to capital market activities. Since the two no longer have to be under separate ownership, some use the term "commercial bank" to refer to a bank or a division of a bank that mostly deals with deposits and loans from corporations or large businesses. Community banks: locally operated financial institutions that empower employees to make local decisions to serve their customers and the partners. Community development banks: regulated banks that provide financial services and credit to underserved markets or populations. Credit unions: not-for-profit cooperatives owned by the depositors and often offering rates more favorable than for-profit banks. Typically, membership is restricted to employees of a particular company, residents of a defined neighborhood, members of a certain labor union or religious organizations, and their immediate families. Postal savings banks: savings banks associated with national postal systems. Private banks: banks that manage the assets of high net worth individuals. Historically a minimum of USD 1 million was required to open an account, however, over the last years many private banks [citation needed] have lowered their entry hurdles to USD 250,000 for private investors.

Offshore banks: banks located in jurisdictions with low taxation and regulation. Many offshore banks are essentially private banks. Savings bank: in Europe, savings banks took their roots in the 19th or sometimes even in the 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to all strata of the population. In some countries, savings banks were created on public initiative; in others, socially committed individuals created foundations to put in place the necessary infrastructure. Nowadays, European savings banks have kept their focus on retail banking: payments, savings products, credits and insurances for individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises. Apart from this retail focus, they also differ from commercial banks by their broadly decentralized distribution network, providing local and regional outreachand by their socially responsible approach to business and society. Building societies and Landesbanks: institutions that conduct retail banking. Ethical banks: banks that prioritize the transparency of all operations and make only what they consider to be socially-responsible investments. A Direct or Internet-Only bank is a banking operation without any physical bank branches, conceived and implemented wholly with networked computers.

[edit]Types

of investment banks

Investment banks "underwrite" (guarantee the sale of) stock and bond issues, trade for their own accounts, make markets, and advise corporations oncapital market activities such as mergers and acquisitions. Merchant banks were traditionally banks which engaged in trade finance. The modern definition, however, refers to banks which provide capital to firms in the form of shares rather than loans. Unlike venture capital firms, they tend not to invest in new companies.

[edit]Both

combined

Universal banks, more commonly known as financial services companies, engage in several of these activities. These big banks are very diversified groups that, among other services, also distribute insurance hence the term bancassurance, a portmanteau word combining "banque or bank" and "assurance", signifying that both banking and insurance are provided by the same corporate entity.

[edit]Other

types of banks

Central banks are normally government-owned and charged with quasi-regulatory responsibilities, such as supervising commercial banks, or controlling the cash interest rate. They generally provide liquidity to the banking system and act as the lender of last resort in event of a crisis. Islamic banks adhere to the concepts of Islamic law. This form of banking revolves around several well-established principles based on Islamic canons. All banking activities must avoid interest, a concept that is forbidden in Islam. Instead, the bank earns profit (markup) and fees on the financing facilities that it extends to customers.