INTRODUCTION
Some young savers stash their cash in shoe boxes or jelly jars. Others use “piggy banks,” which today look more like spaceships or cartoon characters.
In any case, the same problem arises. Sooner or later, the piggy bank or jelly jar fills up, and you have to make a decision: Should I spend the money or continue to save? And if I continue to save, should I open a bank account or just find a bigger jar?
Maybe you’ve had to face such a decision yourself. If you decide to keep your money at home, it will just sit there and won’t earn any extra money for you. You also run the risk that a burglar, a fire, or some other disaster will wipe out your savings in the wink of an eye.
Then again, if you open a bank account, you can’t “visit” your money as easily as you can when it sits in your dresser drawer. You can’t just walk into a bank in the middle of the night to count your cash. You can’t run the coins through your fingers or toss the bills in the air and let them rain down on your head.
Opening a bank account is a big step because you are putting your money in someone else’s hands. You’re counting on someone else to handle your money responsibly. Before you do that, it might be a good idea to understand how banks operate.
That’s the purpose of this pamphlet. It won’t tell you everything there is to know about banks and banking, but we hope it will be a good basic introduction.
WHAT IS A BANK?
A bank is a business. But unlike some businesses, banks don’t manufacture products or extract natural resources from the earth. Banks sell financial services such as car loans, home mort-gage loans, business loans, checking accounts, credit card services, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts.
Some people go to banks in search of a safe place to keep their money. Others are seeking to borrow money to buy a house or a car, start a business, expand a farm, pay for college, or do other things that require borrowing money.
Where do banks get the money to lend? They get it from people who open accounts. Banks act as go-betweens for people who save and people who want to borrow. If savers didn’t put their money in banks, the banks would have little or no money to lend.
Your savings are combined with the savings of others to form a big pool of money, and the bank uses that money to make loans. The money doesn’t belong to the bank’s president, board of directors, or stockholders. It belongs to you and the other depositors. That’s why bankers have a special obligation not to take big risks when they make loans.
HOW DO PEOPLE START BANKS?
The process of starting a bank varies from state to state, but, in general, here’s how it goes:
1. A group of individuals decides to start a bank. Their first step is to apply for a charter from their state banking commission.* The charter sets out the rules for how they must operate their bank.
2. The banking commission reviews the application to make sure it is complete and then schedules a hearing.
3. The commission looks at the financial condition and the character of the applicants.
4. After that, the banking commission will either approve the application or deny it.
5. If approved, the group that applied to start the bank will then have a certain amount of time to raise the necessary capital, put together a full management team, and obtain federal deposit insurance.
6. When that’s done, the group will notify the banking commission, which will then review the list of proposed investors. If the commission has no objection to the list, if the bank is insured, and if an acceptable management team is in place, the commission will issue its final approval and the bank may open for business.
HOW DID BANKING BEGIN?
Imagine for a moment that you are a merchant in ancient Greece or Phoenicia. You make your living by sailing to distant ports with boatloads of olive oil and spices. If all goes well, you will be paid for your cargo when you reach your destination, but before you set sail you need money to outfit your ship. And you find it by seeking out people who have extra money sitting idle. They agree to put up the money for your voyage in exchange for a share of your profits when you return . . . if you return.
The people with the extra money are among the world’s first lenders, and you are among the world’s first borrowers. You complain that they’re demanding too large a share of the profits. They reply that your voyage is perilous, and they run a risk of losing their entire investment. Lenders and borrowers have carried on this debate ever since.
Today, people usually borrow from banks rather than wealthy individuals. But one thing hasn’t changed: Lenders don’t let you have their money for nothing.
Lenders have no guarantee that they will get their money back. So why do they take the risk? Because lending presents an opportunity to make even more money.
For example, if a bank lends $50,000 to a borrower, it is not satisfied just to get its $50,000 back. In order to make a profit, the bank charges interest on the loan. Interest is the price bor-rowers pay for using someone else’s money. If a loan seems risky, the lender will charge more interest to offset the risk. (If you take a bigger chance, you want a bigger pay-off.)
But the opportunity to earn lots of interest won’t count for much if a borrower fails to repay a loan. That’s why banks sometimes refuse to make loans that seem too risky. Before lending you money, they look at:
• how much and what types of credit you use, such as credit cards, auto loans, or other consumer loans;
• whether or not you have a history of repaying your loans, and
• how promptly you pay your bills.
Banks also use interest to attract savers. After all, if you have extra money you don’t have to put it in the bank. You have lots of other choices:
• You can bury it in the backyard or stuff it in a mattress. But if you do that, the money will just sit there. It won’t increase in value, and it won’t earn interest.
• You can buy land or invest in real estate. But if the real estate market weakens, buildings and land can take a long time to sell. And there’s always the risk that real estate will drop in value.
• You can invest in the stock market. But like real estate, stocks can also drop in value, and the share price might be low when you need to sell.
• You can buy gold or invest in collectibles such as baseball cards, but gold and collectibles fluctuate in value. Who knows what the value will be when it’s time to sell? (In 1980, gold sold for $800 an ounce. By1983, the price had sunk below $400.)
Or you can put the money in a bank, where it will be safe and earn interest. Many types of bank accounts also offer quick access to your money.
