Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
It is very hard to collect the correct information of the origin of bank. The word “Bank” has derived
from the Italian word “Banco” which means accumulation of money of stock. It is believed that its
origin is from the French word “Banque” which means “beach” for keeping, lending and exchanging
of money or coin in the market place by money lenders or money changers. It is believed that the
ancestors of modern banking system were merchants, goldsmiths and moneylenders. Modern banking
sowed its seed in the medieval Italy despite strong Christian prohibitions against charging interest.
The bank had started in Italy in 12th century as a public bank. The Bank of Venice that was
established in 1158 A.D. was the first bank in the history of banking. Following its establishment
various banks such as Bank of Barcelona, which was established in 1401 A.D was the second bank of
the world. Similarly, Bank of Geneva (1407), Bank of Amsterdam (1609), Bank of Hindustan (1770)
were established. The first central bank was the “Bank of England” which was established in 1844
AD.
Bank is a financial institution, which is engaged in monitory transaction. Bank has always been the
most importance and largest financial intermediates. Banks collect the scattered money from public
providing those interests and services. This collection becomes the capital for the bank to invest.
“Banking means the accepting of money for the view of lending or investment of deposit from the
public repayable on demand or otherwise and withdraw able by cheque, draft or otherwise”, is
according to Banking Regulation Act 1949 of India. World Bank says “Banks or a financial institution
that accepts funds in the forms of deposit repayable on demand or at short notice.”
Some important meanings of bank given by different scholars are as follows:
According to G. Crowther:-
“A Bank is a dealer in debt in his own and other people are the bankers business is them to take the
debt of other people to otter his own in exchange and thereby to credit money.”
Therefore, the bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the general public and
provides loans to different sectors at different interest rates. Bank plays the vital role in the
economical condition.
Now, there are 23 commercial banks with 483 bank branches and 318 rural branches along with 45
financial companies and 5 Rural Development Banks.
A commercial bank is a financial institution which collects saving from many persons and institutions
and provides credit or loan facility to different industrial and commercial business. Commercial
banking business consists of changing cash into hank deposit and bank deposit into cash, transferring
bank deposit form one person or institution to other, giving bank deposit in exchange for cheques,
bills of exchange, government securities etc.
Nepal Bank Limited established in 1994 BS is the first commercial bank in Nepal. Commercial banks
perform various functions. Among them, accepting various types of deposit is the main function of
commercial banks.