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Part VII: Financial Systems
depositor’s money against a future claim on itself; and when it
lends, it gets future claim on money against the immediate claim on
itself. The commercial bank, thus, may be defi ned as “an institution
whose debts (bank deposits) are widely accepted in settlement of
other people’s debt to each other”.
FUNCTIONS
Broadly speaking, a commercial bank performs the following
transactions:
(i) It receives deposits.
(ii) It advances loans.
(iii) It discounts the bills of exchange.
(iv) It maintains safe-deposit vaults.
(v) It transfers funds.
(vi) It performs miscellaneous functions.
We examine each of these functions in detail in this section.
(i) Banks receive deposits: Banks mainly depend on the ...