B) The Nature of Banking

 

The nature ... banks can best be understood ... examining both their long-established functions and new emerging roles. The former include the provision of payment services and intermediation services. The latter include the merging ... investment and commercial banking activities. The banking firm is recognized as a major force ... the financial markets. As intermediaries they collect the deposits of the household sector, held ... the form of demand and savings deposits, and recycle them ... real investment capital. They perform maturity transformation – lending long and borrowing short. Banks provide the real sector ... funds, the major source of financing for the industrial sector. Besides, banks are viewed now as evaluators of investment opportunities available ... both the primary and secondary markets. The bank's role is to screen potential projects, to determine expected return and risk ... the not-always-objective data presented ... the demanders of funds.

What differentiates banks from other financial intermediaries? First, banks issue liabilities that are media of exchange in that the transactions velocities of chequable deposits tend to be much higher than the transactions velocities of other assets. Second, banks differ ... other financial intermediaries with regard ... the nature of the assets they hold. While most of the assets held ... mutual funds are publicly traded, bank assets tend not to be traded ... securities markets.

Words you may need:

naturen природа, характер

emergev появляться, возникать

the former/the latterпервый/ последний (из двух)

Savings depositсберегательный вклад

to lend longпредоставлять долгосрочные ссуды

to borrow shortполучать краткосрочные ссуды

real sectorреальный сектор

evaluatorn оценщик

screenv сортировать, проводить проверку

expected returnрасчетная (ожидаемая) доходность

to issue liabilitiesвыдавать долговые обязательства

media of exchangeсредства обмена

velocityn скорость

chequable depositдепозит, который может изыматься с помощью чеков

publicly tradedпродаваемые и покупаемые на фондовой бирже