What is a bank?

The answer to the question "What is a bank?" might seem quite simple. In reality, however, the answer is rather complicated. A bank offers transaction accounts (such as demand deposits) to its customers. It also offers various types of savings accounts and certificates of deposits and makes a variety of loans. It might be argued then that a bank is an organization that offers these services.

Two problems immediately come to mind with such a definition. First, organizations other than commercial banks also provide these services. Savings and loan associations, savings banks, and credit unions provide deposit and loan services that are virtually identical to those of commercial banks, and money market funds and investment brokers such as Merrill Lynch also provide similar services. Second, banks do many things that are not included in the functions of offering deposit and loan services. They provide trust services, arrange mergers and acquisitions, and guarantee payment from one party to another through letters of credit and other devices.

Perhaps the best definition of a bank is the following: "A bank is an organization that has been given banking powers either by the state or the federal government." Although this definition might seem to be somewhat circular (a bank is as a bank does) and perhaps somewhat trivial, the definition provides useful insight into the nature of the institution by recognizing the dynamic and ever-changing nature of banking.

Imagine the entire range of financial services that exists in a modern economy. These services would certainly number in the hundreds, perhaps in the thousands. At a given time, government will allow banks to provide some of those services. At that time, commercial banks may be defined in terms of those services. As time passes, however, new financial services will be created and attitudes may change about the desirability of allowing banks to offer certain existing financial services. As a result, the range of financial services permissible for commercial banks may be altered—either expanded or reduced. In the last 20 years, the range of permissible services has been expanded considerably, both because of deregulation and the actions of bank managers who have created innovative financial services not expressly prohibited by legislation or regulation. Hence, a bank today is not like a bank 20 years ago (in terms of the services offered), which is again not the same as a bank 20 years earlier. Yet all are commercial banks. Table 1.1 provides some perspective on the types of services that banks now offer and compares them with the traditional range of services.

Definition of a commercial bank in terms of permissible activities also provides insight into the perpetual dispute over the limits of bank powers. Not surprisingly, managers of commercial banks attempt to have laws and regulations changed in order to obtain expanded powers to provide additional financial services. Managers of the firms that provide those financial services not now permitted to banks work just as hard to prevent bank competition in those areas. Much of the debate over bank regulation centers on the controversy between bankers and other financial service firms over the limits of bank powers.

Table 1.1.