X. Join the halves.

The retail banks, as their name suggests, …

Such services traditionally…

In recent years, banks have been actively peeking to increase business and other services have been introduced…

The larger banks either own or have established links with security traders and also …

Retail banking is nowadays contrasted with wholesale banking …

A large part of such business is …

The distinction between retail and wholesale banking is conceptual rather than the legal …

Other banks specialize largely or entirely …

Barclays, Lloyds, Midland and National Westminster are the main retail banks of England and Wales; Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland are the main retail banks in Scotland, although …

A subset of the retail banks, comprising the main English and Scottish banks, owns the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company which …

Each bank presents for payment cheques that it has received from clients and …

Banks may also present cheques for payment on behalf of other banks …

There is a separate electronic clearing system for direct debits, standing orders etc., …

A third clearing company deals with all high-value same-day clearings which include electronic credit transfers from across the country and high-value cheques (over £100,000) drawn on and …

The participants here are again the main English and Scottish banks plus a few other banks actively …

Banks involved in the clearing of payments are known as clearing banks and …

settle debts between themselves by pay­ments in or out of accounts at the Bank of England.

where the participants include a slightly wider range of banks as well as three large building societies.

receives for payment cheques drawn by its clients and paid into other banks.

paid into certain bank branches within the City of London.

in wholesale banking.

involved in City of London money markets.

who do not participate directly in the clearing and for whom they act as agents.

and most of the banks classified as retail banks are, in reality, mixed banks which undertake both types of banking.

notably automated teller machines, eurocheques (cheques which may be written in foreign currencies), long-term mortgage lending, and opportunities for mutual investment in securi­ties through bank-managed unit trusts.

offer facilities for buying and selling securities.

cover the taking of deposits at sight and at notice, the provision of chequebooks and the clearing of cheques, the making of loans, sale and purchase of foreign currency and travellers' cheques, dealing with international remittances, safe-deposit facilities, financial advice and maybe insurance broking.

operates the daily clearing of cheques.

the last named also has a number of branches in England and Wales; and Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Northern Bank and Ulster Bank are the main retail banks in both Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland.

are banks which offer retail banking services to business and personal clients, both small and large, through a network of branches.

which involves dealing in large sums of money (typically one million pounds and over) in both sterling and foreign currencies.

undertaken in organized short-term financial markets in international centres such as London, New York, Tokyo and Paris.