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  • 现代银行发展

    The Development of Modern Banking
    ::现代银行发展

    Early banking and monetary standards have experienced challenges and changes in the United States since the American Revolution. The fight over the concept of banks and whether or not it was allowed under the U.S. Constitution divided the nation over the role of banks, the printing of currency, counterfeiting, and the strength of a national currency.
    ::自美国革命以来,早期银行和货币标准在美国经历了挑战和变化。 争夺银行概念以及美国《宪法》是否允许银行的概念的斗争在银行的作用、印刷货币、伪造货币和国家货币的力量上分裂了国家。

    Universal Generalizations
    ::普遍化

    • The Federal Reserve System is privately owned but publicly controlled.
      ::联邦储备系统是私有的,但由政府控制。
    • The Federal Reserve was established as the nation’s central bank to serve as a bank for banks, to regulate the banking industry, and to regulate the money supply.
      ::美联储是作为国家中央银行成立的,作为银行的银行,管理银行业,管理货币供应。

    Guiding Questions
    ::问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问

    1. What is the monetary policy?
      ::什么是货币政策?
    2. How does the FED use monetary policy to control the economy?
      ::联邦经济发展基金如何利用货币政策控制经济?
    3. What are the methods used by the Federal Reserve to expand and contract the money supply? Explain each method.
      ::美联储在扩大和承包货币供应方面采用什么方法?解释每一种方法。
    4. What other kinds of depository institutions do we have in addition to banks?
      ::除了银行之外,我们还有什么其他类型的托存机构?
    5. How is a bank different from a savings and loan or a credit union?
      ::银行与储蓄、贷款或信用社有何不同?

    The Role of Banks
    ::银行的作用

    The late bank robber named Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks. He answered: “That’s where the money is.” While this may have been true at one time, from the perspective of modern economists, Sutton is both right and wrong. He is wrong because the overwhelming majority of money in the economy is not in the form of currency sitting in vaults or drawers at banks waiting for a robber to appear. Most money is in the form of bank accounts, which exist only as electronic records on computers. From a broader perspective, however, the bank robber was more right than he may have known. Banking is intimately interconnected with money and consequently, with the broader economy.
    ::已故银行劫匪威利·萨顿曾经被问及他为何抢劫银行。 他回答说 : “ 钱就在那里。 ”尽管从现代经济学家的角度看,苏顿可能曾经是真实的,但事实并非如此。 他错了,因为经济中的绝大多数货币不是放在银行的金库或抽屉里等待劫匪出现的货币。 大多数钱都是银行帐户,只有电脑的电子记录。 然而,从更广泛的角度看,银行劫匪比他可能知道的更正确。 银行业与货币紧密相连,因此也与更广泛的经济紧密相连。

    Banks make it far easier for a complex economy to carry out the extraordinary range of transactions that occur in goods, labor, and financial capital markets. Imagine for a moment what the economy would be like if all payments had to be made in cash. When shopping for a large purchase or going on vacation you might need to carry hundreds of dollars in a pocket or purse. Even small businesses would need stockpiles of cash to pay workers and to purchase supplies. A bank allows people and businesses to store this money in either a checking account or savings account, for example, and then withdraw this money as needed through the use of a direct withdrawal, writing a check, or using a debit card.
    ::银行让复杂经济更容易进行货物、劳动力和金融资本市场上发生的超乎寻常的交易。 想象一下,如果所有付款都必须以现金支付,那么经济会是什么样子。 当购买大额购买或休假时,你可能需要在口袋或钱包里携带数百美元。 即使是小企业也需要现金储备来支付工人和购买供应品。 比如,银行允许人们和企业将这笔钱存放在支票账户或储蓄账户中,然后通过直接提款、写支票或使用借记卡等手段在必要时提取这笔钱。

    Banks are a critical intermediary in what is called the payment system, which helps an economy exchange goods and services for money or other financial assets. Also, those with extra money that they would like to save can store their money in a bank rather than look for an individual that is willing to borrow it from them and then repay them at a later date. Those who want to borrow money can go directly to a bank rather than trying to find someone to lend them cash. Transaction costs are the costs associated with finding a lender or a borrower for this money. Thus, banks lower transactions costs and act as financial intermediaries—they bring savers and borrowers together. Along with making transactions much safer and easier, banks also play a key role in the creation of money.
    ::银行是所谓的支付系统的关键中介,它帮助经济交换货物和服务以换取金钱或其他金融资产。 此外,那些他们想要储蓄的额外资金可以存放在银行,而不是寻找愿意从银行借钱的人,然后在日后还债。 那些想借钱的人可以直接去银行,而不是试图找人借钱给他们现金。 交易费用是与为这笔钱找到贷款人或借款人有关的费用。 因此,银行降低交易费用并充当金融中介 — — 他们把储蓄人和借款人聚集在一起。 除了使交易更加安全和容易,银行在创造货币方面也发挥着关键作用。

    Other Types of Depository Institutions
    ::其他类型保管机构

    Commercial banks were established to assist businesses and commerce early in this nation's history since they made it possible for businesses to complete financial transactions in a safe manner. They had the ability to issue checks and pay business expenses. Another type of account is a "thrift account," which was set up in the 1970s for individuals to have demand deposit accounts so that they could also write checks. Today checking accounts or demand deposit accounts allow for funds to be removed by writing a check without prior approval from the depository institutions. 
    ::建立商业银行是为了帮助企业和商业,因为商业银行使企业能够安全地完成金融交易,它们有能力进行检查和支付业务开支。 另一种账户是1970年代建立的“防盗账户 ” , 个人可以开立活存账户,以便也可以写支票。 今天,检查账户或活存账户允许在未经存款机构事先批准的情况下通过开具支票来取走资金。

    Savings banks began in the late 1700s to fill the need for individuals to have a place to keep their money. By the 1800s, other banks were created to compete with commercial and savings banks, such as savings and loan associations (S&L) which were created by builders. A S&L invests its funds in home mortgages, and investors take turns borrowing the money to build a home. 
    ::储蓄银行始于1700年代末期,以满足个人保留其资金的需要。 到1800年代,其他银行被创建来与商业银行和储蓄银行竞争,比如由建筑商创建的储蓄和贷款协会(S&L ) 。 A S&L将其资金投资于房屋抵押贷款,投资者轮流借钱建造房屋。

    A modern development has been the credit union, which is a nonprofit service cooperative that is owned by and operated for the benefit of its members. Most credit unions are organized around an employer or a specific industry, such as the El Paso Area Teacher's Union, the Government Employees Credit Union (GECU) or Navy Federal Credit Union (military). These financial institutions generally give better rates for loans and savings accounts for their members.
    ::现代发展是信用社,它是一个非营利服务合作社,由其成员拥有并为其成员的利益经营,大多数信用社都围绕雇主或具体行业组织,如埃尔帕索地区教师工会、政府雇员信贷联盟(GECU)或海军联邦信贷联盟(Navy Federal Credit Union)等,这些金融机构通常为其成员提供更好的贷款和储蓄账户。

    Banks as Financial Intermediaries
    ::作为金融中介的银行

    An “intermediary” is one who stands between two other parties. Banks are a financial intermediary—that is, an institution that operates between a saver who deposits money in a bank and a borrower who receives a loan from that bank. Financial intermediaries include other institutions in the financial market such as insurance companies and pension funds, but they will not be included in this discussion because they are not considered to be depository institutions, which are institutions that accept money deposits and then use these to make loans. All the funds deposited are mingled in one big pool, which is then loaned out. 1 illustrates the position of banks as financial intermediaries, with deposits flowing into a bank and loans flowing out. Of course, when banks make loans to firms, the banks will try to funnel financial capital to healthy businesses that have good prospects for repaying the loans, not to firms that are suffering losses and may be unable to repay.
    ::“中间人”是介于另外两个当事方之间的中间人。 银行是一个金融中介机构 — — 即银行存款储蓄者与从银行获得贷款的借款人之间运作的机构。 金融中介机构包括金融市场的其他机构,如保险公司和养老基金,但是它们不会被纳入讨论,因为它们不被认为是托存机构,这些机构是接受存款然后用这些存款进行贷款的机构。 所有存款都集中在一个大池中,然后放出。 1 表明银行作为金融中介的地位,存款流向银行,贷款流向银行。 当然,当银行向公司提供贷款时,银行会试图将金融资本输给有良好前景的、偿还贷款的企业,而不是亏损和可能无法偿还贷款的公司。

                  Banks as Financial Intermediaries

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    Banks act as financial intermediaries because they stand between savers and borrowers. Savers place deposits with banks, and then receive interest payments and withdraw money. Borrowers receive loans from banks and repay the loans with interest. In turn, banks return money to savers in the form of withdrawals, which also include interest payments from banks to savers.

    Bank Regulation
    ::银行条例

    A safe and stable national financial system is a critical concern of the Federal Reserve. The goal is not only to protect individuals’ savings, but to protect the integrity of the financial system itself. This esoteric task is usually behind the scenes, but came into view during the 2008–2009 financial crisis, when for a brief period of time, critical parts of the financial system failed and firms became unable to obtain financing for ordinary parts of their business. Imagine if suddenly you were unable to access the money in your bank accounts because your checks were not accepted for payment and your debit cards were declined. This example gives an idea of what a failure of the payments/financial system is like.
    ::安全稳定的国家金融体系是美联储的关键问题。 目标不仅仅是保护个人的储蓄,而是保护金融系统本身的完整性。 这一艰巨的任务通常在幕后,但在2008—2009年金融危机期间出现,在短短的一段时间内,金融体系的关键部分崩溃,公司无法为其正常业务获得融资。 想象一下,如果由于您的支票不被接受支付,您的借记卡被拒,你突然无法动用银行账户中的钱。 这个例子说明了支付/金融系统的失败是怎样的。

    Bank regulation is intended to maintain the solvency of banks by avoiding excessive risk. Regulation falls into a number of categories, including reserve requirements, capital requirements, and restrictions on the types of investments banks may make. In a previous section, we learned that banks are required to hold a minimum percentage of their deposits on hand as reserves. “On hand” is a bit of a misnomer because, while a portion of bank reserves are held as cash in the bank, the majority are held in the bank’s account at the Federal Reserve, and their purpose is to cover desired withdrawals by depositors. Another part of bank regulation is restrictions on the types of investments banks are allowed to make. Banks are allowed to make loans to businesses, individuals, and other banks. They are allowed to purchase U.S. Treasury securities but, to protect depositors, they are not permitted to invest in the stock market or other assets that are perceived as too risky.
    ::银行监管意在通过避免过度风险来保持银行的偿付能力。 监管可分为若干类别,包括储备要求、资本要求和对投资银行种类的限制。 在前一节中,我们了解到银行必须持有其库存存款的最低限度百分比作为储备。 “手头”有点误名,因为虽然银行储备的一部分作为现金持有在银行,但大部分在联邦储备银行的账户中,其目的是涵盖存款人想要的提款。 银行监管的另一部分是允许银行对投资银行种类的限制。 银行可以向企业、个人和其他银行提供贷款。 他们可以购买美国国库证券,但为了保护存款人,他们不能在股票市场或被认为风险太大的其他资产上投资。

    Bank capital is the difference between a bank’s assets and its liabilities. In other words, it is a bank’s net worth. A bank must have positive net worth; otherwise it is insolvent or bankrupt, meaning it would not have enough assets to pay back its liabilities. Regulation requires that banks maintain a minimum net worth, usually expressed as a percent of their assets, to protect their depositors and other creditors.
    ::银行资本是银行资产与其负债之间的差额。 换句话说,银行净值是银行的净值。 银行必须拥有正净值;否则银行将破产或破产,这意味着银行没有足够的资产偿还负债。 监管要求银行保持最低净值,通常以其资产的百分比表示,以保护存款人和其他债权人。

    Bank Supervision
    ::银行监督

    Several government agencies monitor the balance sheets of banks to make sure they have positive net worth and are not taking too high a level of risk. Within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has a national staff of bank examiners who conduct on-site reviews of the 1,500 or so of the largest national banks. The bank examiners also review any foreign banks that have branches in the United States. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also monitors and regulates about 800 savings and loan institutions.
    ::若干政府机构监测银行的资产负债表,以确保银行有正净值,不冒过高的风险。 在美国财政部内,货币主计长办公室有1名银行检查员的本国工作人员,对1 500多家最大的国家银行进行现场审查。银行检查员还审查在美国设有分行的任何外国银行。货币主计长办公室还监测和管理大约800家储蓄和贷款机构。

    The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) supervises credit unions, which are nonprofit banks owned and run by their members. There are over 10,000 credit unions in the U.S. economy, though the typical credit union is small compared to most banks.
    ::国家信用社管理局(NCUA)监督由其成员拥有和经营的非盈利银行的信用社。 美国经济中有超过10,000个信用社,尽管典型的信用社与大多数银行相比规模较小。

    The Federal Reserve also has some responsibility for supervising financial institutions. For example, conglomerate firms that own banks and other businesses are called “bank holding companies.” While other regulators like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency supervises the banks, the Federal Reserve supervises the holding companies.
    ::美联储也负有监督金融机构的某些责任,例如,拥有银行和其他企业的集团企业被称为“银行控股公司 ” 。 货币主计长办公室等其他监管者监管银行,而美联储监管控股公司。

    When the supervision of banks (and bank-like institutions such as savings and loans and credit unions) works well, most banks will remain financially healthy most of the time. If   the bank supervisors find that a bank has low or negative net worth, or is making too high a proportion of risky loans, they can require that the bank change its behavior—or, in extreme cases, even force the bank to be closed or sold to a financially healthy bank.
    ::当银行(以及储蓄、贷款和信用合作社等类似银行的机构)的监督工作良好时,大多数银行大部分时间都会保持财务健康。 如果银行监督员发现银行净值低或负值,或者风险贷款比例过高,他们可以要求银行改变其行为 — — 或者在极端情况下甚至强迫银行关闭或出售给金融健康银行。

    Bank supervision can run into both practical and political questions. The practical question is that measuring the value of a bank’s assets is not always straightforward. A bank’s assets are its loans, and the value of these assets depends on estimates about the risk that these loans will not be repaid. These issues can become even more complex when a bank makes loans to banks or firms in other countries or arranges financial deals that are much more complex than a basic loan.
    ::银行监督可能涉及实际和政治问题。 实际问题是,衡量银行资产的价值并不总是简单明了的。 银行的资产就是贷款,而这些资产的价值取决于对这些贷款无法偿还的风险的估计。 当银行向其他国家的银行或公司贷款或安排比基本贷款复杂得多的金融交易时,这些问题会变得更加复杂。

    The political question arises because the decision by a bank supervisor to require a bank to close or to change its financial investments is often controversial, and the bank supervisor often comes under political pressure from the owners of the bank and the local politicians to keep quiet and back off.
    ::政治问题之所以出现,是因为银行监督员决定要求银行关闭或改变其金融投资经常引起争议,银行监督员常常受到银行所有者和当地政客的政治压力,要求他们保持缄默和退缩。

    For example, many observers have pointed out that Japan’s banks were in deep financial trouble through most of the 1990s; however, nothing substantial had been done about it by the early 2000s. A similar unwillingness to confront problems with struggling banks is visible across the rest of the world, in East Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, and elsewhere.
    ::比如,许多观察家都指出,日本银行在1990年代的大部分时间都陷入了严重的金融麻烦;然而,到2000年代初,日本银行并没有对此采取任何实质性措施。 在全世界其他地方,东亚、拉丁美洲、东欧、俄罗斯和其他地方,都可以看到类似的不愿面对困难银行问题的意愿。

    In the United States, laws were passed in the 1990s requiring that bank supervisors make their findings open and public and that they act as soon as a problem is identified. However, as many U.S. banks were staggered by the recession of 2008–2009, critics of the bank regulators asked pointed questions about why the regulators had not foreseen the financial shakiness of the banks earlier before such large losses had a chance to accumulate.
    ::在美国,1990年代通过了法律,要求银行监督员公开公开其调查结果,一旦发现问题就立即采取行动。 然而,由于2008-2009年衰退使许多美国银行错开,批评银行监管者的批评者问道,为什么监管者在如此巨大的损失有机会累积之前,没有预见到银行金融不稳。

    Bank Runs
    ::银行经营

    Back in the nineteenth-century and during the first few decades of the twentieth century (around and during the Great Depression), putting your money in a bank could be nerve-wracking. Imagine that the net worth of your bank became negative, so that the bank’s assets were not enough to cover its liabilities. In this situation, whoever withdrew their deposits first received all of their money.  Those who did not rush to the bank quickly enough lost their money. Depositors racing to the bank to withdraw their deposits is called a bank run. In the movie "It’s a Wonderful Life", the bank manager, played by Jimmy Stewart, faces a mob of worried bank depositors who want to withdraw their money, but manages to allay their fears by allowing some of them to withdraw a portion of their deposits—using the money from his own pocket that was supposed to pay for his honeymoon.
    ::回到十九世纪和二十世纪前几十年(大萧条时期和前后),将你的钱放入银行可能令人发指。 想象一下,你的银行净值变成负值,因此银行的资产不足以支付其负债。 在这种情况下,谁先提取存款,谁先拿到了他们的全部钱。 那些没有急着去银行的人很快就失去了钱。 存款人竞相到银行提取存款被称为银行运行。 在吉米·斯图尔特所演的电影《美好生活 》 ( It's a Worthing Life Life)中,银行经理面临一群担心的银行存款人,他们想收回钱,但设法通过让其中一些人提取一部分存款来消除他们的恐惧 — — 他们用自己的口袋里的钱支付蜜月。

    Video: It's a Wonderful Life Bank Run
    ::视频:这是美妙的生活银行运行

     The risk of bank runs created instability in the banking system. Even a rumor that a bank might experience negative net worth could trigger a bank run and, in a bank run, even healthy banks could be destroyed. Because a bank will loan out most of the money it receives, and because it keeps only limited reserves on hand, a bank run of any size would quickly drain any of the bank’s available cash. When the bank had no cash left , it only intensified the fears of remaining depositors that they could lose their money. Moreover, a bank run at one bank often triggered a chain reaction of runs on other banks. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, bank runs were typically not the original cause of a recession—but they could make a recession much worse.
    ::银行经营的风险造成了银行系统的不稳定。 即使是银行可能出现负净值的谣言也有可能引发银行运行,在银行运行中,甚至健康银行也会被摧毁。 由于银行将贷款其收到的大部分资金,并且因为银行只持有有限的储备,任何规模的银行运行都会迅速耗尽银行可用现金。 当银行没有现金时,它只会加剧对剩余存款人可能失去资金的恐惧。 此外,银行在一家银行运行往往引发其他银行的连锁交易反应。 在十九世纪末和二十世纪初,银行运行通常不是衰退的原因 — — 但是它们可能使衰退更加严重。

    Deposit Insurance
    ::存款存款保险

    To protect against bank runs, Congress has put two strategies into place: deposit insurance and the lender of last resort. Deposit insurance is an insurance system that makes sure depositors in a bank do not lose their money, even if the bank goes bankrupt. About 70 countries around the world, including all of the major economies, have deposit insurance programs. In the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is responsible for deposit insurance. Banks pay an insurance premium to the FDIC. The insurance premium is based on the bank’s level of deposits and then adjusted according to the riskiness of a bank’s financial situation. In 2009, for example, a fairly safe bank with a high net worth might have paid 10–20 cents in insurance premiums for every $100 in bank deposits, while a risky bank with very low net worth might have paid 50–60 cents for every $100 in bank deposits.
    ::为了防范银行破产,国会制定了两项战略:存款保险和最后贷款人。 存款保险是一种保险制度,确保银行存款人不会失去钱财,即使银行破产。 全世界大约70个国家,包括所有主要经济体,都有存款保险计划。 在美国,联邦存款保险公司(FDIC)负责存款保险。 银行向FDIC支付保险费。 保险金以银行存款水平为基础,然后根据银行财务状况的风险调整。 例如,2009年,拥有高净值的相当安全的银行可能为每100美元的银行存款支付10-20美分的保险费,而净值非常低的风险银行可能为每100美元的银行存款支付50-60美分。

    Bank examiners from the FDIC evaluate the balance sheets of banks, looking at the value of assets and liabilities to determine the level of riskiness. The FDIC provides deposit insurance for about 8,200 banks. Even if a bank fails, the government guarantees that depositors will receive up to $250,000 of their money in each account, which is enough for almost all individuals, although not sufficient for many businesses. Since the United States enacted deposit insurance in the 1930s, no one has lost any of their insured deposits. Bank runs no longer happen at insured banks.
    ::FDIC的银行审查员对银行资产负债表进行评估,查看资产和负债的价值以确定风险程度。 FDIC为大约8,200家银行提供存款保险。 即使银行失败,政府也保证存款人在每个账户中得到高达250,000美元的资金,这对几乎所有个人来说都足够,尽管对许多企业来说还不够。 自从美国在1930年代颁布存款保险以来,没有人损失过任何被保险的存款。 银行不再在投保的银行运作。

    Lender of Last Resort
    ::最后度假地的贷款人

    The problem with bank runs is not that insolvent banks will fail; they are, after all, bankrupt and need to be shut down. The problem is that bank runs can cause solvent banks to fail and spread to the rest of the financial system. To prevent this, the Fed stands ready to lend to banks and other financial institutions when they cannot obtain funds from anywhere else. This is known as the lender of last resort role. For banks, the central bank acting as a lender of last resort helps to reinforce the effect of deposit insurance and to reassure bank customers that they will not lose their money.
    ::银行破产的问题不是破产银行破产;它们毕竟已经破产,需要关闭。 问题在于银行破产可能导致有偿付能力的银行破产,并蔓延到金融系统的其余部分。 为了防止这种情况,美联储随时准备在银行和其他金融机构无法从其他地方获得资金时向它们贷款。 这被称为最后贷款人。 对于银行来说,中央银行作为最后贷款人的作用是帮助加强存款保险的效果,并向银行客户保证他们不会失去资金。

    The lender of last resort task can come up in other financial crises, as well. During the panic of the stock market crash in 1987, when the value of U.S. stocks fell by 25% in a single day, the Federal Reserve made a number of short-term emergency loans, so the financial system could keep functioning. During the recession of 2008–2009, the “quantitative easing” policies (discussed below) of the Federal Reserve can be interpreted as a willingness to make short-term credit available as needed in a time when the banking and financial system was under stress.
    ::最后手段的放款人也可以在其他金融危机中出现。 在1987年股市崩溃的恐慌中 — — 当时美国股价在一天之内下跌了25 % , 美联储提供了一系列短期紧急贷款,以便金融系统能够继续运作。 在2008-2009年衰退期间,美联储的“量化宽松”政策(下文将讨论)可以被解释为愿意在银行和金融体系处于压力之时提供所需的短期信贷。

    A bank run occurs when there are rumors (possibly true, possibly false) that a bank is at financial risk of having negative net worth. As a result, depositors rush to the bank to withdraw their money and put it someplace safer. Even false rumors, if they cause a bank run, can force a healthy bank to lose its deposits and be forced to close. Deposit insurance guarantees bank depositors that, even if the bank has negative net worth, their deposits will be protected. In the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) collects deposit insurance premiums from banks and guarantees bank deposits up to $250,000. Bank supervision involves inspecting the balance sheets of banks to make sure that they have positive net worth and that their assets are not too risky. In the United States, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is responsible for supervising banks and inspecting savings and loans and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is responsible for inspecting credit unions. The FDIC and the Federal Reserve also play a role in bank supervision.
    ::当有谣言(可能是真实的,也可能是虚假的)说银行有出现负净值的财务风险时,就会发生银行运行。 因此,存款人冲向银行,要求收回存款,将其置于更安全的地方。即使虚假的谣言,如果导致银行运行,也会迫使健康银行失去存款并被迫关闭。 存款保险保证银行存款人,即使银行有负净值,他们的存款也会受到保护。 在美国,联邦存款保险公司从银行收取存款保险金,保证银行存款高达250 000美元。 银行的监督包括检查银行的资产负债表,以确保银行有正净值,确保其资产没有太大的风险。 在美国,货币主计长办公室(OCC)负责监督银行,检查储蓄和贷款,国家信用合作社管理局(NCUA)负责检查信用合作社。 存款保险公司和联邦储备局(FDIC)也在银行监督中发挥作用。

    When a central bank acts as a lender of last resort, it makes short-term loans available in situations of severe financial panic or stress. The failure of a single bank can be treated like any other business failure. Yet if many banks fail, it can reduce aggregate demand in a way that can bring on or deepen a recession. The combination of deposit insurance, bank supervision, and lender of last resort policies help to prevent weaknesses in the banking system from causing recessions.
    ::当央行作为最后贷款人采取行动时,它会在严重金融恐慌或压力下提供短期贷款。 单家银行的倒闭可以和其他任何企业倒闭一样对待。 但是,如果许多银行倒闭,它可以降低总需求,从而导致或加深衰退。 存款保险、银行监管和最后贷款政策的结合有助于防止银行系统的弱点引发衰退。

      Chart Comparing Financial Institutions

    How are Banks, Savings and Loans, and Credit Unions Related?
    ::银行、储蓄和贷款以及信用社与银行、储蓄和贷款有何关联?

    Banks have a couple of close cousins: savings institutions and credit unions. Banks, as explained, receive deposits from individuals and businesses and make loans with the money. Savings institutions are also sometimes called “savings and loans” or “thrifts.” They also take loans and make deposits. However, from the 1930s until the 1980s, federal law limited how much interest savings institutions were allowed to pay to depositors. They were also required to make most of their loans in the form of housing-related loans, either to home buyers or to real-estate developers and builders.
    ::银行有几家亲近的表亲:储蓄机构和信用社。 银行,如所解释的那样,从个人和企业那里收取存款,用钱贷款。 储蓄机构有时也被称为“储蓄和贷款 ” , 或者“左撇子 ” 。 它们也接受贷款和存款。 但是,从1930年代到1980年代,联邦法律限制允许储蓄机构向存款人支付多少利息。 还要求它们以与住房有关的贷款形式,向购房者或者房地产开发商和建筑商提供大部分贷款。

    A credit union is a nonprofit financial institution that its members own and run. Members of each credit union decide who is eligible to be a member. Usually, potential members would be everyone in a certain community, or groups of employees, or members of a certain organization. The credit union accepts deposits from members and focuses on making loans back to its members. While there are more credit unions than banks and more banks than savings and loans, the total assets of credit unions are growing.
    ::信用社是一个非盈利的金融机构,其成员拥有和经营信用社,每个信用社的成员决定谁有资格成为会员,通常,潜在会员是某个社区中的每一个人,或某个组织中的雇员群体或成员。信用社接受会员的存款,并侧重于向会员提供贷款。 虽然信用社比银行多,银行比储蓄和贷款多,但信用社的总资产却在增加。

    In 2008, there were 7,085 banks. Due to the bank failures of 2007–2009 and bank mergers, there were 5,844 banks in the United States at the end of the third quarter in 2013. According to Bankrate, there were 7,351 credit unions in the United States in 2012 with average assets of $20 million. A day of “Transfer Your Money” took place in 2009 out of general public disgust with big bank bailouts. People were encouraged to transfer their deposits to credit unions. This has grown into the ongoing Move Your Money Project. Consequently, some now hold deposits as large as $50 million. However, as of 2013, the 12 largest banks (0.2%) controlled 69 percent of all banking assets, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve.
    ::2008年,有7,085家银行。 由于2007—2009年银行倒闭和银行兼并,2013年第三季度末,美国有5,844家银行。 根据银行利率,2012年美国有7,351家信用社,平均资产为2,000万美元。 2009年,公众对大银行救助感到厌恶,因此发生了一天的“资金转移 ” 。 人们被鼓励将存款转移给信用社。 这已经发展到正在进行的“移动你的货币项目 ” 。 因此,一些银行现在持有的存款高达5,000万美元。 然而,根据达拉斯联邦储备,截至2013年,12家最大银行(0.2%)控制了所有银行资产的69%。

    A Bank’s Balance Sheet
    ::A银行的资产负债表

    A balance sheet is an accounting tool that lists assets and liabilities. An asset is something of value that is owned and can be used to produce something. For example, the cash you own can be used to pay your tuition. If you own a home, this is also considered an asset. A liability is a debt or something you owe. Many people borrow money to buy homes. In this case, a home is an asset, but the mortgage is the liability. The net worth is the asset value minus how much is owed (the liability). A bank’s balance sheet operates in much the same way. A bank’s net worth is also referred to as bank capital. A bank has assets such as cash held in its vaults, monies that the bank holds at the Federal Reserve bank (called “reserves”), loans that are made to customers, and bonds.
    ::资产负债表是列出资产和负债的会计工具。资产是自有的价值,可以用来生产某种东西。例如,拥有的现金可以用来支付你的学费。如果你拥有一个家庭,这也被视为资产。负债就是债务或欠你的东西。许多人借钱购买房屋。在这种情况下,房屋是资产,但抵押是负债。净值是资产价值减去所欠金额(负债)后的资产价值。银行资产负债表也以同样的方式运作。银行的净值也被称为银行资本。银行有资产,例如银行保险库中的现金、银行在联邦储备银行(称为“储备”)持有的货币、向客户提供的贷款和债券。

     3 illustrates a hypothetical and simplified balance sheet for the Safe and Secure Bank. Because of the two-column format of the balance sheet, with the T-shape formed by the vertical line down the middle and the horizontal line under “Assets” and “Liabilities,” it is sometimes called a T-account.
    ::由于资产负债表有两栏格式,T形状由中下垂直线和“资产”和“负债”下的横向线组成,有时被称为T帐户。

                  A Balance Sheet for the Safe and Secure Bank
    ::安全和安保银行资产负债表

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    The “T” in a T-account separates the assets of a firm, on the left, from its liabilities, on the right. All firms use T-accounts, though most are much more complex. For a bank, the assets are the financial instruments that either the bank is holding (its reserves) or those instruments where other parties owe money to the bank—like loans made by the bank and U.S. Government Securities, such as U.S. treasury bonds purchased by the bank. Liabilities are what the bank owes to others. Specifically, the bank owes any deposits made in the bank to those who have made them. The net worth of the bank is the total assets minus total liabilities. Net worth is included on the liabilities side to have the T account balance to zero. For a healthy business, net worth will be positive. For a bankrupt firm, net worth will be negative. In either case, on a bank’s T-account, assets will always equal liabilities plus net worth.
    ::在T-账户中,“T”将公司的资产与其负债分开,左转,右转。所有公司都使用T-账户,尽管大多数都复杂得多。 对于银行来说,资产是银行持有的金融工具(其储备),或者其他当事方欠银行的金融工具 — — 如银行和美国政府证券(如银行购买的美国国库债券 ) 的贷款。 负债是银行欠他人的。 具体地说,银行欠银行的存款给银行的存款,银行的净值是总资产减去总负债。 净值被列入负债方,使T账户余额为零。 对于健康的企业来说,净值将是正值。 对于破产公司来说,净值将是负值。 无论哪种情况,在银行的T-账户上,资产总是等于负债加净值。

    When bank customers deposit money into a checking account, savings account, or a certificate of deposit, the bank views these deposits as liabilities. After all, the bank owes these deposits to its customers, when the customers wish to withdraw their money. In the example shown in  3, the Safe and Secure Bank holds $10 million in deposits.
    ::当银行客户将钱存入支票账户、储蓄账户或存款证明时,银行将这些存款视为负债。 毕竟,当客户希望提取钱款时,银行将这些存款欠客户。 安全银行持有1 000万美元的存款。

    Loans are the first category of bank assets shown in  3. Say that a family takes out a 30-year mortgage loan to purchase a house.  This means that the borrower will repay the loan over the next 30 years. This loan is clearly an asset from the bank’s perspective because the borrower has a legal obligation to make payments to the bank over time. But in practical terms, how can the value of the mortgage loan that is being paid over 30 years be measured in the present? One way of measuring the value of something—whether a loan or anything else—is by estimating what another party in the market is willing to pay for it. Many banks issue home loans and charge various handling and processing fees for doing so, but then sell the loans to other banks or financial institutions who collect the loan payments. The market where loans are made to borrowers is called the primary loan market, while the market in which these loans are bought and sold by financial institutions is the secondary loan market.
    ::贷款是第三类银行资产。 请指出一个家庭从30年抵押贷款中取出30年抵押贷款购买房屋。 这意味着借款人将在未来30年内偿还贷款。 从银行的角度看,这一贷款显然是一笔资产,因为借款人有法定义务在一段时间内向银行付款。 但实际上,如何用现在来衡量30年以上偿还的抵押贷款的价值?衡量某种东西的价值的一种方法 — — 无论是贷款还是其它东西 — — 是通过估计市场上另一当事方愿意支付它的价值来衡量。 许多银行发放了房屋贷款并收取各种手续和手续费,但随后又将贷款出售给收取贷款的其他银行或金融机构。 向借款人发放贷款的市场被称为初级贷款市场,而金融机构买卖这些贷款的市场则是二级贷款市场。

    One key factor that affects what financial institutions are willing to pay for a loan, when they buy it in the secondary loan market, is the perceived riskiness of the loan: that is, given the characteristics of the borrower, such as income level and whether the local economy is performing strongly, what proportion of loans of this type will be repaid? The greater the risk that a loan will not be repaid, the less that any financial institution will pay to acquire the loan. Another key factor is to compare the interest rate charged on the original loan with the current interest rate in the economy. If the original loan made at some point in the past requires the borrower to pay a low-interest rate, but current interest rates are relatively high, then a financial institution will pay less to acquire the loan. In contrast, if the original loan requires the borrower to pay a high-interest rate, while current interest rates are relatively low, then a financial institution will pay more to acquire the loan. For the Safe and Secure Bank in this example, the total value of its loans if they were sold to other financial institutions in the secondary market is $5 million.
    ::影响金融机构在二级贷款市场购买贷款时愿意偿还贷款的一个关键因素是贷款的风险感:也就是说,鉴于借款人的特点,如收入水平和当地经济是否表现强劲,这类贷款的比例会有多大?贷款得不到偿还的风险越大,任何金融机构为获得贷款所支付的数额就越少。 另一个关键因素是将原始贷款的利率与当前经济利率进行比较。 如果过去某个时候的原始贷款要求借款人支付低息利率,但目前的利率相对较高,那么金融机构为获得贷款而支付的数额就越少。 相比之下,如果原始贷款要求借款人支付高利率,而目前的利率相对较低,那么金融机构将支付更多的钱来获得贷款。 比如,对于安全银行来说,如果将贷款卖给二级市场的其他金融机构,则其贷款总价值为500万美元。

    The second category of bank asset is bonds, which are a common mechanism for borrowing used by the federal and local government, private companies, and nonprofit organizations. A bank takes some of the money it has received in deposits and uses the money to buy bonds—typically bonds issued by the U.S. government. Government bonds are low-risk because the government is virtually certain to pay off the bond, albeit at a low rate of interest. These bonds are an asset for banks in the same way that loans are an asset: The bank will receive a stream of payments in the future. In our example, the Safe and Secure Bank holds bonds worth a total value of $4 million.
    ::第二类银行资产是债券,这是联邦政府和地方政府、私营公司和非营利组织共同使用的借款机制,银行收取存款中收到的部分资金,并用这笔资金购买典型由美国政府发行的债券,政府债券风险较低,因为政府几乎肯定要偿还债券,尽管利率较低。 这些债券与贷款是一种资产一样,是银行的资产:银行今后将收到一系列付款,例如,安全银行持有总价值400万美元的债券。

    The final entry under assets is reserves, which is money that the bank keeps on hand, and that is not loaned out or invested in bonds—and thus does not lead to interest payments. The Federal Reserve requires that banks keep a certain percentage of depositors’ money on “reserve,” which means either in their vaults or kept at the Federal Reserve Bank. This is called a reserve requirement.  Additionally, banks may also want to keep a certain amount of reserves on hand in excess of what is required. The Safe and Secure Bank is holding $2 million in reserves.
    ::资产的最后入门是储备,即银行持有的、没有放出或投资于债券的资金 — — 因而不会导致利息支付。 美联储要求银行在“储备 ” ( 储备 ) 上保留一定比例的存款人的钱,这意味着要么存放在他们的保险库中,要么存放在联邦储备银行。 这被称为储备要求。 此外,银行还可能希望持有一定数量的储备,超过要求。 安全银行持有200万美元的储备。

    The net worth of a bank is defined as its total assets minus its total liabilities. For the Safe and Secure Bank shown in  3, net worth is equal to $1 million; that is, $11 million in assets minus $10 million in liabilities. For a financially healthy bank, the net worth will be positive. If a bank has negative net worth and depositors tried to withdraw their money, the bank would not be able to give all depositors their money.
    ::银行净值被定义为其总资产减去总负债。 3中显示的安全和保安银行净值为100万美元,也就是说,1 100万美元的资产减去1 000万美元的债务。 对于财务健全的银行来说,净值将是正数。 如果银行净值为负数,存款人试图收回其存款,银行将无法向所有存款人提供其存款。

    How Banks Go Bankrupt
    ::银行如何破产

    A bank that is bankrupt will have a negative net worth, meaning its assets will be worth less than its liabilities. How can this happen? Again, looking at the balance sheet helps to explain.
    ::破产的银行净值为负值,这意味着其资产的价值将低于其负债。 如何做到这一点? 再说一次,看资产负债表有助于解释。

    A well-run bank will assume that a small percentage of borrowers will not repay their loans on time, or at all, and factor these missing payments into its planning. Remember, the calculations of the expenses of banks every year includes a factor for loans that are not repaid, and the value of a bank’s loans on its balance sheet assumes a certain level of riskiness because some loans will not be repaid. Even if a bank expects a certain number of loan defaults, it will suffer if the number of loan defaults is much greater than expected, as can happen during a recession. For example, if the Safe and Secure Bank in  3 experienced a wave of unexpected defaults so that its loans declined in value from $5 million to $3 million, then the assets of the Safe and Secure Bank would decline so that the bank had negative net worth.
    ::管理良好的银行将假设一小部分借款人不会按时或完全偿还贷款,并将这些缺失的付款计入其计划之中。 记住,每年银行支出的计算都包含一个未偿还贷款的因数,而银行资产负债表上的贷款价值则假设一定的风险程度,因为有些贷款不会偿还。 即使银行预计会发生一定数量的违约贷款,但如果违约贷款数量比预期的要多,那么它也会受到影响,这在衰退期间可能发生。 比如,如果三家安全银行出现意外违约,因此其贷款价值从500万美元下降到300万美元,那么安全银行的资产就会下降,从而导致银行的净负值下降。

    Video: Why are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Important?

    What Led to the Financial Crisis of 2008-2009?
    ::如何应对2008-2009年金融危机?

    Many banks make mortgage loans so that people can buy a home, but then do not keep the loans on their books as an asset. Instead, the bank sells the loan. These loans are “securitized,” which means that they are bundled together into a financial security that is sold to investors. Investors in these mortgage-backed securities receive a rate of return based on the level of payments that people make on all the mortgages that stand behind the security.
    ::许多银行提供按揭贷款,以便人们可以买房,但不能将贷款作为资产保留在账簿上。 相反,银行将贷款出售。 这些贷款是“证券化的 ” , 这意味着它们被捆绑在一起,成为卖给投资者的金融担保。 这些按揭担保证券的投资者根据人们对担保背后的所有按揭的支付水平获得回报率。

    Securitization offers certain advantages. If a bank makes most of its loans in a local area, then the bank may be financially vulnerable if the local economy declines so that many people are unable to make their payments. If a bank sells its local loans, and then buys a mortgage-backed security based on home loans in many parts of the country, it can avoid being exposed to local financial risks. (In the simple example in the text, banks just own “bonds.” In reality, banks can own a number of financial instruments, as long as these financial investments are safe enough to satisfy the government bank regulators.) From the standpoint of a local homebuyer, securitization offers the benefit that a local bank does not need to have lots of extra funds to make a loan, because the bank is only planning to hold that loan for a short time, before selling the loan so that it can be pooled into a financial security.
    ::证券化提供了某些优势。 如果银行在当地地区提供大部分贷款,那么如果当地经济下滑,许多人无力支付,银行就可能在财政上处于弱势。 如果银行出售当地贷款,然后在该国许多地方购买以房屋贷款为基础的抵押担保,银行就可以避免面临当地金融风险。 (在文本中简单的例子中,银行只是拥有“债券 ” 。 事实上,银行可以拥有一些金融工具,只要这些金融投资足够安全,足以满足政府银行监管者的要求。 )从当地购房者的角度来看,证券化提供的好处是,当地银行不需要大量额外资金来贷款,因为银行只是在计划短期持有贷款,然后才将贷款出售,以便将其集中到金融担保中。

    Securitization also offers one potentially large disadvantage. If a bank is going to hold a mortgage loan as an asset, the bank has an incentive to scrutinize the borrower carefully to ensure that the loan is likely to be repaid. However, a bank that is going to sell the loan may be less careful in making the loan in the first place. The bank will be more willing to make what are called “subprime loans,” which are loans that have characteristics like low or zero down-payment, little scrutiny of whether the borrower has a reliable income, and sometimes low payments for the first year or two that will be followed by much higher payments after that. Some subprime loans made in the mid-2000s were later dubbed NINJA loans: loans made even though the borrower had demonstrated No Income, No Job, or Assets.
    ::证券化还带来一个潜在的巨大劣势。 如果银行将按揭贷款作为资产持有,银行就会有动力仔细检查借款人,以确保贷款有可能得到偿还。 但是,打算出售贷款的银行在发放贷款时首先可能不太小心。 银行将更愿意做所谓的“次级贷款 ” , 即具有低或零首付等特征的贷款,很少审查借款人是否有可靠的收入,有时在第一年或两年的付款率很低,随后将支付数额要高得多。 2000年代中期的一些次级贷款后来被称作NINJA贷款:即使借款人表示没有收入、没有工作或资产,也提供了贷款。

    These subprime loans were typically sold and turned into financial securities—but with a twist. The idea was that if losses occurred on these mortgage-backed securities, certain investors would agree to take the first, say, 5% of such losses. Other investors would agree to take, say, the next 5% of losses. By this approach, still other investors would not need to take any losses unless these mortgage-backed financial securities lost 25% or 30% or more of their total value. These complex securities, along with other economic factors, encouraged a large expansion of subprime loans in the mid-2000s.
    ::这些次级贷款通常被出售并变成金融证券 — — 但会发生转折。 其想法是,如果这些抵押担保的证券发生损失,某些投资者会同意接受其中第一笔损失,比如5%的损失。 其他投资者会同意接受,比如说,接下来的5%的损失。 按照这种方法,其他投资者将不需要承担任何损失,除非这些抵押担保的金融证券损失了其总价值的25%或30%或以上。 这些复杂的证券以及其他经济因素鼓励了2000年代中期次级贷款的大幅扩张。

    The economic stage was now set for a banking crisis. Banks thought they were buying only ultra-safe securities because even though the securities were ultimately backed by risky subprime mortgages, the banks only invested in the part of those securities where they were protected from small or moderate levels of losses. But as housing prices fell after 2007, and the deepening recession made it harder for many people to make their mortgage payments, many banks found that their mortgage-backed financial assets could end up being worth much less than they had expected—and so the banks were staring bankruptcy in the face. In the 2008–2011 period, 318 banks failed in the United States.
    ::如今,经济舞台已经陷入了银行危机。 银行认为他们只购买了超安全证券,因为尽管证券最终得到了风险次级抵押贷款的支持,但银行只投资于这些证券中被保护免受小额或中度损失的那部分。 但是,随着2007年以后房价下跌,以及不断深化的衰退使许多人更难支付抵押贷款,许多银行发现其抵押支持的金融资产最终可能比预期的要低得多 — — 因此银行正眼看破产。 在2008—2011年期间,美国有318家银行破产。

    The risk of an unexpectedly high level of loan defaults can be especially difficult for banks because a bank’s liabilities, namely the deposits of its customers, can be withdrawn quickly, but many of the bank’s assets like loans and bonds will only be repaid over years or even decades. This asset-liability time mismatch—a bank’s liabilities can be withdrawn in the short term while its assets are repaid in the long term—can cause severe problems for a bank. For example, imagine a bank that has loaned a substantial amount of money at a certain interest rate, but then sees interest rates rise substantially. The bank can find itself in a precarious situation. If it does not raise the interest rate it pays to depositors, then deposits will flow to other institutions that offer the higher interest rates that are now prevailing. However, if the bank raises the interest rates that it pays to depositors, it may end up in a situation where it is paying a higher interest rate to depositors than it is collecting from those past loans that were made at lower interest rates. Clearly, the bank cannot survive in the long term if it is paying out more in interest to depositors than it is receiving from borrowers.
    ::突然出现高额贷款违约的风险对银行来说可能特别困难,因为银行的负债,即客户的存款,可以很快撤回,但银行的许多资产,如贷款和债券等,只能用数年甚至几十年偿还。 这种资产-负债时间错配 — — 银行负债可以在短期内撤回,而其资产可以长期偿还 — — 可能会给银行造成严重问题。 比如,想象一个银行以一定利率借出大笔钱,但随后又看到利率大幅上升。 银行可能发现自己处于不稳定的境地。 如果银行不提高向存款人支付的利率,那么存款就会流向目前利率较高的其他机构。 但是,如果银行提高向存款人支付的利率,它可能最终向存款人支付的利率高于从过去利率较低的贷款中收取的利率。 显然,如果银行向存款人支付的利息比从借款人那里得到的利率要高,银行将无法长期生存下去。

    How can banks protect themselves against an unexpectedly high rate of loan defaults and against the risk of an asset-liability time mismatch? One strategy is for a bank to diversify its loans, which means lending to a variety of customers. For example, suppose a bank specialized in lending to a niche market—say, making a high proportion of its loans to construction companies that build offices in one downtown area. If that one area suffers an unexpected economic downturn, the bank will suffer large losses. However, if a bank loans both to consumers who are buying homes and cars and also to a wide range of firms in many industries and geographic areas, the bank is less exposed to risk. When a bank diversifies its loans, those categories of borrowers who have an unexpectedly large number of defaults will tend to be balanced out, according to random chance, by other borrowers who have an unexpectedly low number of defaults. Thus, diversification of loans can help banks to keep a positive net worth. However, if a widespread recession occurs that touches many industries and geographic areas, diversification will not help.
    ::银行如何保护自己免受出乎意料的高贷款违约率和资产-负债时间错配风险的冲击? 一种策略是银行使其贷款多样化,这意味着向各种客户贷款。 比如,假设银行专门向利基市场贷款 — — 假设银行向在市中心地区建造办公室的建筑公司提供高比例的贷款。 如果一个地区出现意外的经济衰退,银行将遭受巨大损失。 但是,如果银行向购买房屋和汽车的消费者以及许多行业和地理区域的广大公司提供贷款,银行将面临较少的风险。 当银行放贷时,那些意外大量违约的借款人往往会按照意外机会被其他违约人数少的借款人抵消。 因此,贷款的多样化可以帮助银行保持积极的净值。 但是,如果发生波及许多行业和地理区域的广泛衰退,多样化将无济于事。

    Along with diversifying their loans, banks have several other strategies to reduce the risk of an unexpectedly large number of loan defaults. For example, banks can sell some of the loans they make in the secondary loan market, as described earlier, and instead, hold a greater share of assets in the form of government bonds or reserves. Nevertheless, in a lengthy recession, most banks will see their net worth decline because a higher share of loans will not be repaid in tough economic times.
    ::在贷款多样化的同时,银行还有其他几项战略来降低意外大量贷款违约的风险。 比如,如前所述,银行可以出售在二级贷款市场提供的一些贷款,而以政府债券或储备的形式持有更大的资产份额。 然而,在长期衰退中,大多数银行将看到净值下降,因为较高的贷款份额在经济艰难时期不会偿还。

    Banks facilitate the use of money for transactions in the economy because people and firms can use bank accounts when selling or buying goods and services, when paying a worker or being paid, and when saving money or receiving a loan. In the financial capital market, banks are financial intermediaries; that is, they operate between savers who supply financial capital and borrowers who demand loans. A balance sheet (sometimes called a T-account) is an accounting tool which lists assets in one column and liabilities in another column. The liabilities of a bank are its deposits. The assets of a bank include its loans, its ownership of bonds, and its reserves (which are not loaned out). The net worth of a bank is calculated by subtracting the bank’s liabilities from its assets. Banks run a risk of negative net worth if the value of their assets declines. The value of assets can decline because of an unexpectedly high number of defaults on loans, or if interest rates rise and the bank suffers an asset-liability time mismatch in which the bank is receiving a low rate of interest on its long-term loans but must pay the currently higher market rate of interest to attract depositors. Banks can protect themselves against these risks by choosing to diversify their loans or to hold a greater proportion of their assets in bonds and reserves. If banks hold only a fraction of their deposits as reserves, then the process of banks’ lending money, those loans being re-deposited in banks, and the banks making additional loans will create money in the economy.
    ::银行可以将资金用于经济交易,因为人们和公司在出售或购买货物和服务时,在支付工人或支付工资时,以及在储蓄资金或接受贷款时,可以使用银行账户。 在金融资本市场中,银行是金融中介;也就是说,银行是金融资本的储蓄者与要求贷款的借款者之间运作。 资产负债表(有时称为T账户)是一种会计工具,将资产列在一个栏目中,负债列在另一个栏目中。 银行负债是其存款。银行的资产包括贷款、债券所有权和准备金(没有放贷 ) 。银行的净价值是通过从资产中扣除银行负债来计算的。 银行在资产价值下降时有负净价值的风险。 资产的价值可能会下降,因为贷款违约次数出乎预料,或者利率上升,银行也存在资产负债时间错配差,银行长期贷款利率较低,但必须支付目前较高的市场利率,以吸引存款人。 银行可以保护自己在债券中持有更多贷款的银行,而银行则只能通过将更多的贷款作为贷款的分寸。

    For an additional article on banks and banking follow the link to  .
    ::关于银行和银行业的另外一篇文章与......有联系。

    Answer the self check questions below to monitor your understanding of the concepts in this section.
    ::回答下面的自我核对问题,以监测你对本节概念的理解。

    Self Check Questions
    ::自查问题

    1. What is the Federal Reserve System? What is its role?
    ::1. 联邦储备体系是什么?其作用是什么?

    2. What does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) do?
    ::2. 联邦存款保险公司(存款保险公司)是做什么的?

    3. List other types of depository institutions.
    ::3. 列出其他类型的保存机构。