Banks & Financial Institutions (Financial Markets & Regulation) Flashcards
How do banks achieve profits?
By being a financial intermeiary.
Banks accept saving deposits from savers and give them interest. They then convert these saving deposits into loans which they give to borrowers (who pay interest).
The banks return is the Net interest margin (difference between interest generated from loan and the interest paid out to savers).
What are commercial banks?
A bank which provides financial services and products to retail customers. Its core functions are:
- Accept deposits
- Create deposits/loans
- Support the wider economy, e.g. Barclays, Santander.
Why are commercial banks important for an economy?
- Supplies Finance - provides liquidity to the market.
- Payments System - ensures that money can be managed and used to pay for transactions.
- Insures Against Risk - support businesses to invest via lending facilities.
- Satisfy Incompatible Financial Needs and Wants - Banks can help match savers and borrowers together.
Commerical banks objectives?
- Liquidity
- Security
- Profitability
What are assets?
Claims that banks have against economic agents and are what the bank owns (which can provide future financial benefit). What the bank owns is an injection into the bank.
What are liabilities?
Claims that agents have on the bank and these are used to finance the bank’s asset purchases. What the bank owes is a leakage out of the bank.
What is the golden rule with a banks balance sheet?
Assets = Liabilities = Capital.
This is to protect the bank from solvency issues.
Some assets, e.g. loans, are riskier so are secured (backerd by collateral) or unsecured (cap on how much you can loan out).
Explain why it’s important to have a balanced sheet?
If, e.g., retial deposits are withdrawn are unexpectdely, the bank needs liquidity on the assets (e.g. cash) to meet the liquidity on the liabilities side.
If there is insufficient liquidity from the asset side, banks must sell off other assets, e.g. bonds. Equity capital and retained profits act as a buffer to ensure the bank stays solvent.
This is not ideal as these assets may yet to mature and banks will sell them at a value lower than what they’re expected to generate, which creates losses on the asset side of the balance sheet.
This means that they then have to start drawing upon their equity capital, which will then draw away the safety and security of the bank overtime.
What is the conflict with commercial banks?
There is a liquidity trade off:
- Banks want to hold enough liquid to meet any unexpected withdrawal on liabilities. But, liquid assets generate lower returns which harms profitability.
- Trade off between making sure the bank maks profit to please shareholders, but also enough liquidity to please depositors, regulators and the economy.
What are Investment Banks?
A bank which provides financial services and advice for investment purposes.
They typically work with high net worth individuals, financial institutions, large MNCs, governments.
What are the core functions of investment banks?
- Underwriting Share Issues
- M&A advice
- Supports high net worth clients
How do investment banks make most of their profits?
Fees paid by clients in return for carrying out certain financial activities.
What are the activities of investment banks?
- Underwriting Share Issues = process of issuing and distributing newly issued securities to the market.
- M&A advice = consultancy advice on strategic approach companies should take when merging with another company.
- Propietary trading = Trading on the bank’s own behalf via financial markets.
- Fund management = overseeing and managing clients investment portfolios.
What are universal banks?
A financial institution that offers the full range of financial services to customers (retail and investment divisions).
They have increased:
- Profits
- Scale
- Number of employees
- Number of customers
- Risk profile
What activities do universal banks carry out?
As they are formed through multiple takeovers, they often carry out commercial and investment banking activities:
- Commercial = deposit-taking and lending activities.
- Investment = financial advisory work.
How are losses prevented from one division of the bank to the other?
Firewalls.
If any losses are made in the retial division of the bank it hurts the taxpayer and economy who my have used financial support to bail them out.
What did the 2011 Vickers Report conclude?
On the back of the financial crisis of 2008, ring fencing banks and their division is needed to make sure losses made in one division don’t spread to others. There must be a firewall between the management team of divisions so the same ideas and strategies are not circulating around in different divisions.
What other financial institutions are there?
- Hedge funds
- Insurance companies
- Crowdfunding
- Building society
- Personal funds
- Private equity firm
What do hedge funds do?
Pool of capital taken from individual investors or companies to invest in a mixture of assets across an economy. Portfolio balancing to get a return.
What do insurance companies do?
Make sure losses will be repaid after a negative event has happened.
What is crowdfunding?
Money raised for a particular cause. Individuals donate.
What are building society’s?
Financial institution in which individual depositors become shareholders. If you put money in, you have a vested stake in the company.
What are personal funds?
Contributions which generate retirement income we rely on later on down the line. Topped up by employers and the government. Investment into pension funds helps us to generate a return based on assets the pension funds are invested in.
What are Private Equity Firms?
Firms which invest in private equity in markets. Dilute private equity within the market by investing lots of money. Portfolio balancing.
