Types of Banks
The banking industry can be divided into following sectors, based on the clientele served and products and services offered:
- Retail Banks
- Commercial banks
- Cooperative banks
- Investment Banks
- Specialized banks
- Central banks
Retail Banks:
Retail banks provide basic banking services to individual consumers. Examples include savings banks, savings and loan associations, and recurring and fixed deposits. Products and services include safe deposit boxes, checking and savings accounting, certificates of deposit (CDs), mortgages, personal, consumer and car loans.
Commercial Banks:
Banking means accepting deposits of money from the public for the purpose of lending or investment. Commercial Banks provide financial services to businesses, including credit and debit cards, bank accounts, deposits and loans, and secured and unsecured loans. Due to deregulation, commercial banks are also competing more with investment banks in money market operations, bond underwriting, and financial advisory work. Commercial banks in modern capitalist societies act as financial intermediaries, raising funds from depositors and lending the same funds to borrowers. The depositors’ claims against the bank, their deposits, are liquid, meaning banks are expected to redeem deposits on demand, instantly.
Banks’ claims against their borrowers are much less liquid, giving borrowers a much longer span of time to repay money owed banks. Because a bank cannot immediately reclaim money lent to borrowers, it may face bankruptcy if all its depositors show up on a given day to withdraw all their money.
There are two types of commercial banks, public sector and private sector banks.
Public Sector Banks:
Public sectors banks are those in which the government has a major stake and they usually need to emphasize on social objectives than on profitability.
Private sector banks:
Private sector banks are owned, managed and controlled by private promoters and they are free to operate as per market forces.
Investment Banks:
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client’s agent in the issuance of securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions, and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives, fixed income instruments, foreign exchange, commodities, and equity securities.
Investment banks aid companies in acquiring funds and they provide advice for a wide range of transactions. These banks also offer financial consulting services to companies and give advice on mergers and acquisitions and management of public assets.
Cooperative Banks:
Cooperative Banks are governed by the provisions of State Cooperative Societies Act and meant essentially for providing cheap credit to their members. It is an important source of rural credit i.e., agricultural financing in India.
Specialized Banks:
Specialized banks are foreign exchange banks, industrial banks, development banks, export-import banks catering to specific needs of these unique activities. These banks provide financial aid to industries, heavy turnkey projects and foreign trade.
Central Banks:
Central banks are bankers’ banks, and these banks trace their history from the Bank of England. They guarantee stable monetary and financial policy from country to country and play an important role in the economy of the country. Typical functions include implementing monetary policy, managing foreign exchange and gold reserves, making decisions regarding official interest rates, acting as banker to the government and other banks, and regulating and supervising the banking industry.
These banks buy government debt, have a monopoly on the issuance of paper money, and often act as a lender of last resort to commercial banks. The term bank nowadays refers to these commercial banks. The Central bank of any country supervises controls and regulates the activities of all the commercial banks of that country. It also acts as a government banker. It controls and coordinates currency and credit policies of any country. The Reserve Bank of India is the central bank of India.
