banking

n. business of a bank, business of financial transactions

v. deposit money in a bank; work as banker; count on, depend upon; go ashore

A bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services , including issuing money in various forms, receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions and the creating of credit. A commercial bank accepts deposits from customers and in turn makes loans, even in excess of the deposits; a process known as fractional-reserve banking. Some banks (called Banks of issue) issue banknotes as legal tender. Many banks offer ancillary financial services to make additional profit; for example, most banks also rent safe deposit boxes in their branches.
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Noun
1. engaging in the business of banking; maintaining savings and checking accounts and issuing loans and credit etc.
(hypernym) finance
(derivation) bank
(class) right of offset
2. transacting business with a bank; depositing or withdrawing funds or requesting a loan etc.
(hypernym) finance
(hyponym) home banking
(derivation) bank
(class) rubber, no-good

Noun
1. a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities; "he cashed a check at the bank"; "that bank holds the mortgage on my home"
(synonym) depository financial institution, banking concern, banking company
(hypernym) financial institution, financial organization, financial organisation
(hyponym) credit union
(member-holonym) banking industry, banking system
2. sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water); "they pulled the canoe up on the bank"; "he sat on the bank of the river and watched the currents"
(hypernym) slope, incline, side
(hyponym) riverbank, riverside
3. a supply or stock held in reserve for future use (especially in emergencies)
(hypernym) reserve, backlog, stockpile
(hyponym) blood bank
4. a building in which commercial banking is transacted; "the bank is on the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon"
(synonym) bank building
(hypernym) depository, deposit, repository
(part-meronym) vault, bank vault
5. an arrangement of similar objects in a row or in tiers; "he operated a bank of switches"
(hypernym) array
6. a container (usually with a slot in the top) for keeping money at home; "the coin bank was empty"
(synonym) savings bank, coin bank, money box
(hypernym) container
(hyponym) piggy bank, penny bank
7. a long ridge or pile; "a huge bank of earth"
(hypernym) ridge
(hyponym) bluff
8. the funds held by a gambling house or the dealer in some gambling games; "he tried to break the bank at Monte Carlo"
(hypernym) funds, finances, monetary resource, cash in hand, pecuniary resource
9. a slope in the turn of a road or track; the outside is higher than the inside in order to reduce the effects of centrifugal force
(synonym) cant, camber
(hypernym) slope, incline, side
10. a flight maneuver; aircraft tips laterally about its longitudinal axis (especially in turning); "the plane went into a steep bank"
(hypernym) flight maneuver, airplane maneuver
(hyponym) vertical bank
Verb
1. tip laterally; "the pilot had to bank the aircraft"
(hypernym) tip
2. enclose with a bank; "bank roads"
(hypernym) enclose, inclose, shut in
3. do business with a bank or keep an account at a bank; "Where do you bank in this town?"
(hypernym) transact
(derivation) depository financial institution, banking concern, banking company
4. act as the banker in a game or in gambling
(hypernym) act
5. be in the banking business
(hypernym) work, do work
(derivation) banker
6. put into a bank account; "She deposites her paycheck every month"
(synonym) deposit
(hypernym) give
(hyponym) redeposit
(derivation) depository financial institution, banking concern, banking company
7. cover with ashes so to control the rate of burning; "bank a fire"
(hypernym) cover
8. have confidence or faith in; "We can trust in God"; "Rely on your friends"; "bank on your good education"; "I swear by my grandmother's recipes"
(synonym) trust, swear, rely
(hypernym) believe
(hyponym) credit

(p. pr. & vb. n.)
of Bank
  

(n.)
The business of a bank or of a banker.
  

In the broadest sense of the term, "banking" is the business of accepting temporary responsibility for safeguarding other people's money ("deposits") and then lending out these funds (along with the bankers' own funds) in order to earn interest for the bank's own account. Banking firms thus earn their profits primarily by serving as "financial intermediaries" who mobilize the scattered savings of many households and firms (by offering safekeeping services and paying interest on at least some kinds of accounts) and then make these pooled funds available to suitable borrowers (to business firms that want to finance proposed investment projects or perhaps to consumers who want to finance big ticket durable consumers' goods like automobiles or perhaps to governmental entities whose policy-makers have decided to spend more money than they have received in revenue collections). The bank pledges its own capital (and also buys outside deposit insurance) to guarantee that any depositor can get all his/her money back in cash no later than some contractually specified length of time after giving notice of withdrawal. The bank makes this somewhat risky guarantee even though it is quite predictable that some (hopefully small) percentage of the loans the bankers make using depositers' funds will "turn sour" and not be repaid by the borrower. The bank's profits arise mainly from the (positive) spread between its costs of securing and servicing deposits and its revenues from fees and interest on the loans extended. (Of course banks frequently seek to make additional profits selling other financial services to their clients and customers as well, but the business of accepting deposits and making loans is the defining core of the banking business.)
Not all firms engaging in "banking" in this broad sense are officially called "banks." Savings and loan associations, credit unions and other miscellaneous thrift institutions provide similar services under other names. The laws of the United States and most other developed industrial countries provide for multiple types of financial intermediary institutions whose official "labels" normally depend upon the selected purposes for which they will loan money (business loans, consumer loans, real estate mortgages, etc.), the maximum time period for which they will contract a loan (2 years? 5 years? 30 years?), and the kinds of supplementary services (checking privileges, foreign exchange, management of trusts and estates, etc.) that they may provide for their customers beyond basic taking of deposits and extension of loans.
From the perspective of this course, banks are mainly of interest because of their key role in determining the size of the money stock. Considerably less than half of the US money stock (M1) consists of physical cash or currency (coins and bills). Most of the money stock in the US (or any other present-day advanced industrial economy) is in the form of "mere" ledger entries representing bank depositers' credit balances in their individual or corporate checking accounts. And, amazingly enough to the uninitiated, this means that banks are constantly creating money "out of thin air" simply by making bookkeeping entries that assign new checking account credits to customers as they take out loans from the bank. More...