BANKING

A bank is a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities, either directly or through capital markets. A bank connects customers with capital deficits to customers with capital surpluses.
Banking is generally a highly regulated industry, and government restrictions on financial activities by banks have varied over time and location. The current set of global bank capital standards is called Basel II. In some countries such as Germany, banks have historically owned major stakes in industrial corporations while in other countries such as the United States banks are prohibited from owning non-financial companies. In Japan, banks are usually the nexus of a cross-share holding entity known as the keiretsu.
The oldest bank still in existence is Monte dei Paschi di Siena, headquartered in Siena, Italy, which has been operating continuously since 1472.[1]
Contents
• 1. History o 1.1 Origin of the word
• 2. Definition
• 3. Banking o 3.1 Standard activities o 3.2 Wider commercial role o 3.3 Channels o 3.4 Business model o 3.5 Products
 3.5.1 Retail
 3.5.2 Wholesale
• 4. Risk and capital
• 5. Banks in the economy o 5.1 Economic functions o 5.2 Bank crisis o 5.3 Size of global banking industry
• 6. Regulation
• 7. Types of banks o 7.1 Types of retail banks o 7.2 Types of investment banks o 7.3 Both combined o 7.4 Other types of banks
History
Banks date back to ancient times. During the 3rd century AD, banks in Persia and other territories in the Persian Sassanid Empire issued letters of credit known as Ṣakks. Muslim traders are known to have used the cheque or ṣakk system since the time of Harun al-Rashid (9th century) of the Abbasid Caliphate. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash an early form of the cheque in China drawn on sources in Baghdad,[2][verification needed] a