Английский язык: Сборник текстов и упражнений. Бодргина Л.И - 23 стр.

                                ENGLISH BANKS

      Today the British banking is a complicated tripartite system like a three-layer
cake. The system is headed by the Bank of England.
      This bank was established under a royal charter in 1694. The head of the
Bank is Governor of the Bank appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of
the Prime Minister. The Queen also appoints Deputy Governor and the Court of
the Directors, which consists of 16 directors.
      The Bank of England is a central bank or a national bank. It controls the Brit-
ish banking system, is sues banknotes and mints coins. It lends and borrows mon-
ey for the government, manages the national debt and is in the control of the na-
tion’s gold reserve. The other two layers are:
      – the commercial or joint stock clearing banks;
      – specialized banking institutions such as the discount houses and merchant
banks.
      The commercial or joint- stock banks deal with the general public. The four
large English commercial banks are known as the Big Four. They are Barclays,
Lloyds, the Midland, and the National Westminster. Together they have up-
wards of 10.000 branches. Commercial banks render various services to compa-
nies and individuals. Some of the services are:
      – to receive or accept from their customers the deposit of money;
      – to collect and transfer money both at home and abroad against deposit and
current accounts;
      – to provide overdrafts to both personal and business customers;
      – to exchange money;
      – to supply economic information and to prepare economic reviews to be
published;
      – to make foreign exchange transactions, including spot transactions, for-
ward transactions and swap transactions;
      – to issue various banker’s cards;
      – to lend loans to their customers.
      Merchant banks and discount houses deal only with special customers pro-
viding funds for special purposes. They accept commercial bills of exchange and
offer quite a lot of financial services. They provide advisory services about new
issues of securities, mergers, take-overs and reorganizations. They also arrange fi-
nancing for their customers and provide fund-management services.
       Besides there is a big group of banks in the UK made up of foreign banks.
All the major foreign banks are represented in the UK by subsidiary, branch, rep-
resentative offices or consortium. They provide finance both in sterling and in oth-
er currencies and offer a wide range of financial services.
      Lombard Street is the symbol of British banking. This is the place where the
first bankers coming from Italy settled.




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