Facts About Banks

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The word bank comes from the Italian word banca and also from the French word banque meaning bench or money exchange table.  A bank can as well be defined as any financial organization or body whose responsibility is to support and create avenue for clients to deposit money and pays up upon the requisition of their clients. Banks do not focus on money but also valuable papers, documents and properties for clients.

The following are some of the facts about banks that you need to know:

Fact 1:     The commencement of banking is trailed to the days of the Mesopotamians where their temples were serving as the safest points for storage of goods for example grains including treasures or valuable items. Then, the temples and palaces where heavily protected and some people even viewed these places to be under protection of spiritual force (gods or goddess). These treasures and grains were used as sureties in securing loans, and paying up of dues and arrears. Historical records show that the people of Babylon were taking loans from their temple in the year 200BC.

Fact 2:    In May 2009, the CARD Act also known as Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act was passed into law by President Obama to regulate the unreasonable increase in the interest rate of banks as well as other bank’s services which also attracts an increase in cost during the first year of that account. This is to ease and enable the account holder to be able pay up debts and bills plus all statements must be written in the explicable language for the client or consumer to comprehend.

Fact 3:    The financial amendment bill which was designed by Dodd-Frank as well as passed in the year 2010AD brought forth the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with the purpose of controlling the greedy habits and attempts by Banks and financial institutions so as to help the consumer to have a fair and apparent products and services on offer.

Fact 4:    Banks require licenses or mandate from the Central bank backed by the Central government in order to receive pay ins and invest them, clear checks and also issue out check books, functioning also as a middle man in monetary dealings of cooperate institutions and companies, working out interest on loans as well as paying up interests on moneys in their custody and so on.

Fact 5:    It is an established fact that moneys lend to customers and clients by banks do not belong to the bank. It is therefore impossible for banks to pay up all clients’ money when let say everyone who saves in bank decides to go for his/her money. It is also impossible if everyone who owns or takes loans from banks decides to pay back their debts. This is because the amount of money in the world today cannot fulfill all financial obligations (paying up loans and its interests).

Fact 6:    Banks make their profit from moneys they lend to customers from the deposits collected. This what we call the Net Interest Margin aka. NIM which is the variance involving the incomes made from loans and that of what is remunerated as deposits interest.

Fact 7:    Without a genuine information about a person, banks will not allow him/her to hold an account. There are some basic requirement one needs to provide in order to open and operate an entirely new account and these are: Provision of your date of birth, residential address, mailing address, telephone or mobile number, social security number which is optional . Moreover, one needs to submit a valid government issue Identification Card with your picture e.g. Voters ID, Driving License, Traveling Passport, etc. for validation of your personality.

Fact 7:    Most banks will not allow a minor (a person below 18 years of age) to operate an account say by withdrawing, checking account balance, requesting for bank statements, acquisition of loans etc. unless his or her guardian or parent co-own the account and acts on his or her behalf.

Fact 8:    In United Kingdom, the law permits solely individuals to be asserted as being bankrupt.

Fact 9:    Bankruptcy is derived from the Italian word banca rotta meaning broken bench. This meaning given to bankruptcy raises the thought of whether in the past these wooden tables and benches set up by the moneylenders ever experienced a broken bench.

Fact 10:    To maximize fees for each overdraft, most banks do have the practice of deducting client’s debits ranging from the substantial ones to the less substantial instead of considering the times of each business dealings as they check and balance the accounts of each client on daily bases.

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