Bank

The essential function of a bank is to provide services related to the storing of deposits and the extending of credit. The evolution of banking dates back to the earliest writing, and continues in the present where a bank is a financial institution that provides banking and other financial services. Currently the term bank is generally understood as an institution that holds a banking license. Banking licenses are granted by bank regulatory authorities and provide rights to conduct the most fundamental banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. There are also financial institutions that provide certain banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank, a so called non-bank. Banks are a subset of the financial services industry.

How banks are viewed

Banks have a long history of being characterized as heartless, rapacious creditors, hounding honest folk down on their luck for the last dime. See Populism.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In United States history, the National Bank was a major political issue during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson fought against the bank as a symbol of greed and profit-mongering, antithetical to the democratic ideals of the United States.

Related Topics:
United States history - Andrew Jackson - Democratic ideals

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

?The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It?s the monster. Men made it, but they can?t control it.? ? John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Related Topics:
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~