Modern ideas about the nature of the bank
Category: Concept of the Bank and the Banking System
Observations on the origin of the bank, no doubt, are essential for analysis, as if they are closer to disclosing the essence of the bank, but not everything is clear, the essence of the bank remains a mystery.
Banking institutions varied. In modern society, banks have engaged in various kinds of operations. They not only organize cash flow and credit relations. They are being financed through the national economy, buying and selling securities, and in some cases, brokerage and property management. Lending institutions provide advice, participate in the discussion of legislative and economic programs, keep statistics, have their own utility company. The impression is not about specifics, but a multifaceted essence of the bank. In the discharge of its activities are connected its such species that can carry, and other institutions.
To reveal the essence of the bank can be approached from two sides: the legal and economic. In the first case the initial value takes the concept of «banking». In their list includes those who, in accordance with the laws relate exclusively to banking.
Despite the importance of legal aspects of the essence of the bank remains open. Investigating the reality — is not only the ratio of the bank’s activities with the law. Not a legal law defines the essence of the bank itself, not surgery, allowed him to perform, and the economic side of things, the nature of the bank, giving him a legal right to carry out the relevant transactions.
In analyzing the nature of the bank’s important not to lose the historical patterns, consider the stable, traditional transactions were marked before (Intact operation, foreign exchange, credit, payments) to allocate, on the other hand, those who brought economic environment, the peculiarities of a particular stage of social development. In general, knowledge of essence of the bank, like any other phenomena that requires no response to questions about what he does, what actions to fulfill or perform, and about what he has the qualities, expressing his substantial certainty and isolation.
Analysis of the nature of the bank requires a phase of research is not a random set of questions that characterize banking activities, and answer specific questions posed by the methodology. Without these requirements the question of the nature of the bank loses the target orientation, the analysis turns to the description of work performed by the bank, which in spite of their importance, do not clarify the central question of what the true nature of the bank.
In analyzing the nature of the bank’s important to adhere to a number of methodological requirements, which can be summarized as follows:
1. The essence of it is difficult to understand based on the consideration of those operations which are carried out every single bank in relation to this or that to his client. The Bank can not perform certain banking transactions at any given moment, every single customer is entitled to only a limited number of services, but on this particular bank does not cease to be a bank. In the analysis should be abstracted from the operations of individual banks. Its essence is abstract in that sense, it expresses the totality of characteristics of real activity of the bank as a whole. The essence of it is expedient so to consider at the macro level in relation to the economy as a whole, including all variety of real activity of specific banks.
The essence of the Bank united regardless of its type, it does not depend on what we consider a bank — commercial or emission, or special-purpose, private or public, international, inter-regional or local. Of course, this does not mean that in practice all these banks are the same, on the contrary, they have their own characteristics, but all these features reflect a variety of banks as a whole.
3. The essence of the bank requires the opening of its features, specific features that differentiate the bank from other economic institutions.
In this sense, the bank is primarily a company producing a special, specific product.
Characteristics of the bank as a business requires some clarification first from the position prevailing traditional views on the merits. Bank as the governing authority in this case is an element of superstructure, part of the state apparatus. In essence, the bank and as such was its purpose in society has been adequately established the general system of distribution for the period of centralized economic management.
Bank as a specific company produces a product substantially different from the product of material production, it produces not just a commodity, and commodities of a unique kind of money, means of payment. Money is the reproductive categories, cash, issued by the Bank as the sole monopoly on the total weight of the subjects of reproduction, served as the sphere of production and distribution, exchange and consumption. In addition to this product, banks also offer various services mainly pecuniary nature.
The main product of the bank in the service sector (as opposed to an industrial enterprise) is not the production of things, commodities, and provision of credit. Feature of the bank loan is that it is not granted as a certain amount of money, but as capital. This means that lent the money not just have to make gyre in the premises of the borrower, but also to return to its original legal point increments in the form of interest on loans as part of the newly created value.
If the bank is further working mostly on other people’s money, accruing on the basis of repayment, the company carries out its activities mainly on their own resources.
The Bank is different from the industrial enterprise by the nature of his emitting. Not only did he issue shares and other securities, but also performs operations on accounting and custody of securities of other issuers.
The bank operates a special assistance — mainly employees and not working: people who are employed are not physical labor, and monetary transactions, processing figures, information, economic analysis, accounting, settlements between enterprises.
Bank rather trade, intermediary, rather than an industrial enterprise. The similarity of the bank’s trade is not coincidental. Bank really like «buy» resources «sell» them, operate in the field of redistribution, promotes the exchange of goods. He has his «Sellers» store, a special «commercial reserve» and its activities are largely dependent on turnover.
Commercial enterprise, in turn, is similar to a bank in the sense that it can provide some banking services. For example, a large commercial enterprise may, like the bank to issue significant amounts of cash credit. In turn, the trade may be more work than on its own, and borrowed capital.
Finally, as well as in trade, there are often takes place a counter-movement value. The Bank provides its services, the cost of its goods moving away, while the recipient of its product comes to the equivalent payment (for example, the commission for conducting payment operations, cash, consulting and other services).
The resemblance between the bank and trade, mostly ends. The fundamental difference between the bank from commercial enterprise lies in the basis of the bank. Under the framework of the bank means its superior quality — a credit matter, what is the mass of other activities, historically stuck by the bank as a fundamental lesson in scale, require special organization.
In these circumstances, the bank appears to us not as a commercial, but as a particular, specific company, because:
when trading takes place a counter-movement cost, while the credit of its unilateral movement (loaned value is passed to the borrower, which returns the loan only after a certain period);
when trading ownership of goods passes from seller to buyer, the credit does not happen (loaned cost goes to the borrower only in temporary possession);
a trade deal to sell something that belongs to the owner, in a loan it does not always happen (for example, a bank in most of the passes that he does not own, he sells other people’s money);
when trading seller receives from the buyer the price of goods, with the lender receives a credit not only the amount of lending, but the increment in the form of borrowing.
With all the conventions of the notion of the bank as a business (regardless of whether it has similarities or differences to an industrial enterprise), has a right to exist, for more productive characterizes the nature of its activities.
The essence of the bank require disclosure of its structure. Structure of the bank should not be confused with the structure of the apparatus of bank management. Under the structure of the bank is understood it is a device that allows him to function as a specific entity (institution) In this sense, the unit of the bank consists of four compulsory unit, without which it can not exist and develop.
The first block includes bank capital as a specific capital, freed from the industrial and commercial capital, as capital, existing mainly in the form of lending, and is found only in motion.
The second block covers the banking activities, which differs from the activities of other enterprises and institutions, the nature of their product, which became his main occupation (unlike other actors who could perform only certain banking operations, to which they are not the main, underlying business).
The third block consists of a special group of people with specific expertise in banking and bank management.
The fourth unit may be called productive, because it includes the bank machines, buildings, communications equipment and communications, internal and external information, certain types of industrial materials.
An analysis of the specificity of the bank, its foundations and structure of the bank can be defined as an entity or a monetary institution in charge of regulation of payments in cash and cashless forms.