Unit 5. Banks and banks services

Образуйте словосочетания из следующих слов.

legal a) transaction

essential b) system

authorized c) tender

purchasing d) commodities

business e) banks

economic f) power

Text 1. Read and translate.

Banks are among the most important financial institutions in the economy that produce and sell financial services. Banks that offer the widest range of financial ser­vices. Banking covers so many services that it is difficult to define it. Most banks offer a combination of wholesale and retail banking, i.e. they provide large-scale services to companies, govern­ment agencies and other banks and small-scale services to the general public. Banking, however, have three essential functions. They are:

Deposit function — receiving customers' deposits and offering interest-bearing deposits.

Payments function — making payments on behalf of customers for their purchases of goods and services.

Credit function — Tending and investing money.

There are some traditional services that banks offer.

Carrying out currency exchange. History shows that one of the first services offered by banks was currency exchange — a bank stood ready to trade one form of currency for another in return for a service fee.

Safekeeping of valuables. During the Middle Ages, banks began the practice of holding gold, securities, and other valuables owned by their customers in secure vaults. Customers still leave articles of value, locked boxes, wills, and many other things in bank strong rooms for safety.

Trust services. For many years banks have offered to manage the financial affairs and property of individuals and business firms in return for a fee. This property management function is known as trust services. Most banks offer both personal trust services to indi­viduals and families and commercial trust services to corporations and other businesses.

Banking is not static business today.

Financial Advising — customers have long asked for financial advice, particularly, when it comes to the use of credit and the sav­ing and investing of funds.

Many banks today offer a wide range of financial advisory services, from helping to prepare tax returns and financial planning to consulting for business managers and checking on the credit standing of firms and individuals who deal with one of the bank's business customers.

Cash Management — over the years banks have found that some of the services they provide for themselves are also valuable for their customers. One of the most prominent examples is cash management services, in which a bank agrees to handle cash collections and for a business firm and to invest any temporary cash sur­pluses in short-term interest-bearing securities and loans until the cash is needed. While banks tend to specialize mainly in business cash management services, there is a growing trend today towards offering similar services for consumers.

Selling Insurance Policies — most banks either offer selected insurance policies to their customers or have plans to offer insur­ance services in the near future. They hope to be able to offer reg­ular life insurance policies and property-casualty policies, such as auto or home owners' insurance.

Offering Security Brokerage Services — in today's financial marketplace many banks are doing their best to become true "finan­cial department stores". This is one of the main reasons banks began to market security brokerage services in the 1980s, offering their customers the opportunity to buy stocks, bonds, and other securities without security dealers or brokers.

It should be clear from the list of services described that the changes affecting the banking business today are so important that many indus­try analysts refer to current trends as "a banking revolution".

Vocabulary:

Offer	предложить	Wholesale	оптом
Cover	охватывать	General public	широкая общественность
Difficult	трудно	Function	обязанности
Define	(здесь) перечислить	Tend	иметь тенденцию
Retail	розница	Articles	предметы
Provide	обеспечивать	Will	завещание
Large scale	широкий спектр	Strong room	хранилище
Deposit	депозит	Safety	безопасность
Payment	плата, оплата	Trust	доверие
Credit	кредит	Trust services	доверительное управление
Property	собственность	Advising	консультирование
Currency exchange	обмен валюты	Use	использование
fee	плата	Advice	совет
Safekeeping	хранение	Tax return	налоговая декларация
Valuables	ценности	Credit standing	кредитоспособность
Check	проверять	To handle	оперировать, управлять
Surplus	прибыль, доход	Temporary	временный
Find	находить, обнаруживать	Loan	заем, давать в долг
Prominent	выдающийся	Tend to	стремиться, склоняться
Cash	наличность	Trend	тенденция
Short-term interest bearing securities	краткосрочные процентные ценные бумаги
Similar	похожий	Opportunity	возможность
Insurance	страхование	Stocks	акции
Policy	полис (сертификат)	Bond	облигации
Brokerage services	брокерские услуги	Security dealers	диллеры ценных бумаг
Affect	влиять, воздействовать	Casual	временный
Current	текущий	Deal in/with	торговать
Banking transactions	банковские сделки	Department store	универсальный магазин
Casualty	несчастный случай

Дата добавления: 2015-05-26