Banks and Other Financial Institutions Banks are financial institutions that accept deposits and make loans. The term banks includes firms such as commercial banks, savings and loan associations, mutual savings banks, and credit unions. Banks are the financial intermediaries that the average person interacts with most frequently. A person who needs a loan to buy a house or a car usually obtains it from a local bank. Most Americans keep a large portion of their financial wealth in banks in the form of checking accounts, savings accounts, or other types of bank deposits. Because banks are the largest financial intermediaries in our economy, they deserve the most careful study. However, banks are not the only important financial institutions. Indeed, in recent years, other financial institutions, such as insurance companies, finance companies, pension funds, mutual funds, and investment banks, have been growing at the expense of banks, so we need to study them as well.
In Chapter 9, we examine how banks and other financial institutions manage their assets and liabilities to make profits. In Chapter 10, we extend the economic analysis in Chapter 8 to understand why financial regulation takes the form it does and what can go wrong in the regulatory process. In Chapter 11, we look at the banking industry and examine how the competitive environment has changed this industry. We also learn why some financial institutions have been growing at the expense of others.