Banks and business

Banks are organizations that carry out the business of banking, taking deposits, and then using these deposits to make loans. Banks are different in different countries: retail banks, merchant or investment banks, savings banks, universal banks and others.

Let’s speak about the banks in the United States of America. There, commercial banks are classified into two main groups. First, there are national banks. They are charted and supervised by the Federal Government. Secondary, there are state banks. They are charted and supervised by the state in which they are operated. All commercial banks can make loans to borrowers.

Major commercial banks in such cities as Tokyo, Paris, Rio cooperated with each other. In this way they finance imports and exports between countries.

An importer buys merchandise form another country using the currency of that country. For that purpose he buys this currency from the foreign exchange department of his bank. And in the same way if an exporter receives foreign money from sales to other countries, he sells this currency to his bank. By this method the currency of any country can usually be exchanged.

Active vocabulary

carry out – выполнять

to take deposits – принимать вклады (депозиты)

retail bank – банк, занимающийся обслуживанием мелкой клиентуры

merchant or investment bank – (англ.) торговый банк

savings bank – сберегательный банк

universal bank – универсальный банк

commercial bank – коммерческий банк

national bank – национальный банк (категория коммерческих банков в

США)

to charter – учреждать, создавать

to supervise – заведовать, контролировать

state bank – государственный банк; банк штата (в США банк,

действующий по юрисдикции штата)

merchandise – товары

currency – валюта, деньги

foreign exchange department – отдел обмена валюты

to exchange currency – обменивать валюту

loan - заем, ссуда

borrower – заемщик, получатель ссуды

Speech practice:

Ex. I. Answer the questions according to the text:

1. What are banks?

2. What are the types of banks?

3. What do all commercial banks do?

4. What kinds of commercial banks in the USA do you know?

What are they called?

5. Who supervises the operations of national banks?

6. What kind of currency does an importer generally use when he buys goods from another country?

Ex.II. Choose necessary word and put it in the sentence

Federal government … and … all national banks. International cooperation between banks makes it possible … imports and exports. It is possible to convert American dollars to Swiss francs in … department. The … of the USA is the US dollar. All … banks make loans to borrowers. If the importer buys … from another country he will pay for it in the currency of this country

1 merchandise 2 currency 3 commercial 4.foreign exchange 5 to finance 6 to supervise 7 to charter

Lesson 2

TEXT

“Money makes the world go round”