Английский язык: Сборник текстов и упражнений. Бодргина Л.И - 78 стр.

banks. Inherent in this process are delays, which contribute to float or uncol-
lected funds.
      AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINES
      The use of ATMs has grown rapidly since their introduction in 1969.
      They are now widespread in the United States, and most of the nation’s banks
and thrifts, and to a lesser extent credit unions, provide ATM access to consumers.
In 1987, about 151 million ATM cards were outstanding in the United States.
      ATMs are typically installed at depository institutions, supermarkets, conven-
ience stores, shopping centers, airports, and office buildings. Most installed ma-
chines are multipurpose machines, offering several of the following services: cash
withdrawal, deposit, transfer between accounts, cash advance, direct access to a
credit card account, bill payment, and balance inquire.
      CREDIT CARDS
      Credit cards are not true payment instruments because they do not result in a
direct transfer of funds from the payer to the payee. In the case of bank cards, the
cardholder is granted a loan by the card-issuing bank. The merchant’s bank pays
the merchant, usually at a discount, and subsequently settles with the cardholder’s
bank. Credit cards do, however, displace payment transactions by aggregating
them into single daily or weekly payments to merchants and monthly payments for
consumers.
      Credit cards issued by financial institutions, travel and entertainment compa-
nies, and retailers are a safe and convenient substitute for cash and cheques.
      CHEQUES
      Approximately 30 percent of the cheques written in the United States are de-
posited with the depository institutions on which they are drawn. This percentage
has risen in recent years as a result of bank mergers and acquisitions. The remain-
ing 70 percent of cheques are deposited with another depository institution and
must be collected from the institution on which they are drawn.
      Interbank cheques are collected through local clearing house associations,
correspondent bank arrangements, and the Federal Reserve.
      Interbank cheques drawn on institutions outside the geographic area in which
a depository institution is located may be deposited with correspondent banks or
with the Federal Reserve.
      Cheques cleared by the Federal Reserve and correspondent banks are
processed on high-speed equipment that itemises, records, endorses, and sorts
cheques based on information contained in the magnetic ink character recognition
(MICR) line printed along the bottom of cheques. On average, this equipment
processes 1000,000 items per hour.




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