C) Say a few words about services provided by commercial banks

a) A bank was originally... bench set up in the marketplace for... exchange of money. In a commercial sense, a bank is... establishment where money is received on deposit to be repaid on demand or at notice, as may be arranged, and where loans are negotiated, bills discounted, and general financial business transacted. The main functions of... modern commercial bank are:

• to receive money on current accounts repayable on demand, or on deposit accounts repayable subject to an agreed notice;

• to lend money by granting... loans and... overdrafts or discounting bills of exchange and... promissory notes.

Apart from these two chief functions – linking up lenders and borrowers of capital – the bank performs many other functions:

•... obtaining and giving information as to... financial standing of customers:

• transferring funds for... payments or... investments;

• making foreign currency transactions;

• issuing letters of credit, drafts and travellers' cheques;

• undertaking duties of... agents, trustees and guarantors;

• performing leasing and factoring operations and others.

A very important part of any efficient banking system is... interbank market.

Some banks get more... deposits than requests for loans, and vice versa. The interbank market smooths out these imbalances by providing... way for... bank with too many deposits to pass them on to... bank with too many loan requests. In London there are different interbank markets for different currencies and for deposits with different maturities. Of these,... Eurodollar interbank market is particularly important, and LIBOR (the London interbank offered rate) is... key dollar rate for all the world's international borrowing and lending.

Words уоu may need:

bench n скамья

sense n смысл

establishment n учреждение

on deposit на депозит

on demand по требованию

negotiate v вести переговоры

bill n вексель

repayable adj подлежащий оплате

bill of exchange переводной вексель

promissory note простой вексель

apart from кроме, помимо

link up v связывать

financial standing финансовое положение

to issue a letter of credit выставлять/выписывать аккредитив

draft n тратта, переводной вексель

trustee n попечитель

guarantor n гарант

leasing and factoring operations операции по лизингу и факторингу

interbank market межбанковский рынок

vice versa наоборот

to smooth out imbalances сглаживать, устранять диспропорции

maturity n срок погашения обязательства; срок платежа

LIBOR ставка предложения (продавца) на лондонском межбанковском рынке депозитов