Adirect bank (sometimes called abranch-less bank orvirtual bank) is abank that offers its services only via the Internet,mobile app, email, and other electronic means, often including telephone, online chat, and mobile check deposit. A direct bank has nobranch network. It may offer access to an independentbanking agent network and may also provide access viaATMs (often throughinterbank network alliances), andbank by mail. Direct banks eliminate the costs of maintaining a branch network while offering convenience to customers who prefer digital technology. Direct banks provide some but not all of the services offered by physical banks.

Direct bank transactions are conducted entirely online. Direct banks are not the same as "online banking". Online banking is an Internet-based option offered by regular banks. (Full article...)

ThePanic of 1907, also known as the1907 Bankers' Panic orKnickerbocker Crisis, was afinancial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when theNew York Stock Exchange suddenly fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. The panic occurred during a time of economicrecession, and there were numerousruns affectingbanks andtrust companies. The 1907 panic eventually spread throughout the nation when many state and local banks and businesses enteredbankruptcy. The primary causes of the run included a retraction ofmarket liquidity by a number of New York City banks and a loss of confidence amongdepositors, exacerbated by unregulatedside bets atbucket shops.

The panic was triggered by the failed attempt in October 1907 tocorner the market onstock of theUnited Copper Company. When the bid failed, banks that had lent money to the cornering scheme suffered runs that later spread to affiliated banks and trusts, leading a week later to the downfall of theKnickerbocker Trust Company, New York City's third-largest trust. The collapse of the Knickerbocker spread fear throughout the city's trusts asregional banks withdrewreserves from New York City banks. The panic then extended across the nation as vast numbers of people withdrew deposits from their regional banks, causing the 8th-largest decline in U.S. stock market history. (Full article...)

Private banking is a general description forbanking,investment and otherfinancial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily servinghigh-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – those with very high income or substantial assets. Private banking is presented by those who provide such services as an exclusive subset ofwealth management services, provided to particularly affluent clients. The term "private" refers to customer service rendered on a more personal basis than in mass-marketretail banking, usually provided via dedicated bank advisers. It has typically consisted of banking services (deposit taking and payments), discretionary asset management, brokerage, limited tax advisory services and some basicconcierge services, typically offered through a gateway provided by a single designated relationship manager. (Full article...)

Private banks are banks owned by either the individual or a generalpartner(s) with limited partner(s). Private banks are notincorporated. In any such case, creditors can look to both the "entirety of the bank's assets" as well as the entirety of the sole-proprietor's/general-partners' assets.

Private banks have a long tradition inSwitzerland, dating back to at least theRevocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). Private banks also have a long tradition in the UK whereC. Hoare & Co. has been in business since 1672. (Full article...)

Anadvising bank (also known as a notifying bank) advises abeneficiary (exporter) that aletter of credit (L/C) opened by anissuing bank for anapplicant (importer) is available. An advising bank's responsibility is to authenticate the letter of credit issued by the issuer to avoid fraud. The advising bank is not necessarily responsible for the payment of the credit which it advises the beneficiary of. The advising bank is usually located in the beneficiary's country. It can be (1) a branch office of the issuing bank or acorrespondent bank, or (2) a bank appointed by the beneficiary. An important point is the beneficiary has to be comfortable with the advising bank.

In case (1), the issuing bank most often sends the L/C through its branch office or correspondent bank to avoid fraud. The branch office or the correspondent bank maintains specimen signature(s) on file where it may counter-check the signature(s) on the L/C, and it has a coding system (a secret test key) to distinguish a genuine L/C from a fraudulent one (authentication). (Full article...)

Abank run orrun on the bank occurs when manyclients withdraw their money from abank, because they believethe bank may fail in the near future. In other words, it is when, in afractional-reserve banking system (where banks normally only keep a small proportion of their assets as cash), numerous customers withdraw cash fromdeposit accounts with a financial institution at the same time because they believe that the financial institution is, or might become,insolvent. When they transfer funds to another institution, it may be characterized as acapital flight. As a bank run progresses, it may become aself-fulfilling prophecy: as more people withdraw cash, the likelihood of default increases, triggering further withdrawals. This can destabilize the bank to the point where it runs out of cash and thus faces suddenbankruptcy. To combat a bank run, a bank may acquire more cash from other banks or from thecentral bank, or limit the amount of cash customers may withdraw, either by imposing a hard limit or by scheduling quick deliveries of cash, encouraging high-returnterm deposits to reduce on-demand withdrawals or suspending withdrawals altogether.

Abanking panic orbank panic is afinancial crisis that occurs when many banks suffer runs at the same time, as people suddenly try to convert their threatened deposits into cash or try to get out of their domestic banking system altogether. Asystemic banking crisis is one where all or almost all of the banking capital in a country is wiped out. The resulting chain of bankruptcies can cause a longeconomic recession as domestic businesses and consumers are starved of capital as the domestic banking system shuts down. According to former U.S. Federal Reserve chairmanBen Bernanke, theGreat Depression was caused by the failure of theFederal Reserve System to prevent deflation, and much of the economic damage was caused directly by bank runs. The cost of cleaning up a systemic banking crisis can be huge, with fiscal costs averaging 13% ofGDP and economic output losses averaging 20% of GDP for important crises from 1970 to 2007. (Full article...)

The2008 financial crisis, also known as theglobal financial crisis (GFC) or thePanic of 2008, was a major worldwidefinancial crisis centered in the United States. The causes included excessivespeculation on property values by both homeowners andfinancial institutions, leading to the2000s United States housing bubble. This was exacerbated bypredatory lending forsubprime mortgages and by deficiencies inregulation.Cash out refinancings had fueled an increase in consumption that could no longer be sustained when home prices declined. The first phase of the crisis was thesubprime mortgage crisis, which began in early 2007, asmortgage-backed securities (MBS) tied to U.S.real estate, and a vast web ofderivatives linked to those MBS, collapsed in value. Aliquidity crisis spread to global institutions by mid-2007 and climaxed with thebankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which triggered astock market crash andbank runs in several countries. The crisis exacerbated theGreat Recession, aglobal recession that began in mid-2007, as well as theUnited States bear market of 2007–2009. It was also a contributor to the2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and theeuro area crisis.

During the 1990s, theU.S. Congress had passed legislation that intended to expandaffordable housing through looser financing rules, and in 1999, parts of the1933 Banking Act (Glass–Steagall Act) wererepealed, enabling institutions to mix low-risk operations, such ascommercial banking andinsurance, with higher-risk operations such asinvestment banking andproprietary trading. As theFederal Reserve ("Fed") lowered thefederal funds rate from 2000 to 2003, institutions increasingly targeted low-income homebuyers, largely belonging toracial minorities, with high-risk loans; this development went unattended by regulators. As interest rates rose from 2004 to 2006, the cost ofmortgages rose and the demand for housing fell; in early 2007, as more U.S. subprime mortgage holders begandefaulting on their repayments, lenders went bankrupt, culminating in the bankruptcy ofNew Century Financial in April. As demand and prices continued to fall, thefinancial contagion spread to globalcredit markets by August 2007, andcentral banks began injectingliquidity. In March 2008,Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank, was sold toJPMorgan Chase in a "fire sale" backed by Fed financing. (Full article...)

The100 point check is a personal identification system adopted by theAustralian Government to combatfinancial transactionfraud by individuals and companies, enacted by theFinancial Transactions Reports Act (1988) (FTR Act), which established theAustralian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and which continued in existence under theAnti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.

The 100 point system applies to individuals opening newfinancial accounts in Australia, includingbank accounts orbetting accounts. Points are allocated to the types of documentary proof of identity that the person can produce, and they must have at least 100 points of identification to be able to operate an account. The system now also applies to the establishment of a number of officialidentity documents, such as anAustralian passport anddriving licence. (Full article...)

Abank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to itsdepositors or othercreditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. Failing banks share commonalities: rising asset losses, deteriorating solvency, and an increasing reliance on expensive noncore funding.

A bank typically fails economically when themarket value of itsassets falls below the market value of itsliabilities. Theinsolvent bank either borrows from othersolvent banks or sells its assets at a lower price than its market value to generate liquid money to pay its depositors on demand. The inability of the solvent banks to lend liquid money to the insolvent bank creates abank panic among the depositors as more depositors try to take out cash deposits from the bank. As such, the bank is unable to fulfill the demands of all of its depositors on time. A bank may be taken over by the regulating government agency if itsshareholders' equity are below the regulatory minimum. (Full article...)

Acredit union is a member-ownednonprofitcooperativefinancial institution. They may offer financial services equivalent to those ofcommercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (cheque accounts),credit cards,credit, share term certificates (certificates of deposit), andonline banking. Normally, only a member of a credit union maydeposit orborrowmoney. In several African countries, credit unions are commonly referred to asSACCOs (savings and credit co-operatives).

Worldwide, credit union systems vary significantly in their total assets and average institution asset size, ranging from volunteer operations with a handful of members to institutions with hundreds of thousands of members and assets worth billions of US dollars. In 2018, the number of members in credit unions worldwide was 375 million, with over 100 million members having been added since 2016. (Full article...)

Banco Santander S.A.,trading asSantander Group (UK:/ˌsæntənˈdɛər,-tæn-/SAN-tən-DAIR, -⁠tan-,US:/ˌsɑːntɑːnˈdɛər/SAHN-tahn-DAIR,Spanish:[ˈbaŋkosantanˈdeɾ]), is a Spanish multinationalfinancial services company based inSantander, with operative offices inBoadilla del Monte. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in mostglobal financial centres as the16th-largest banking institution in the world. Although known for its European banking operations, it has extended operations acrossNorth America andSouth America, and more recently incontinental Asia. It is considered asystemically important bank by theFinancial Stability Board.

Many subsidiaries, such asAbbey National, have been rebranded under the Santander name. The company is a component of theEuro Stoxx 50stock market index. In June 2023, Santander was ranked as 49th in theForbes Global 2000 list of the world's biggest public companies. (Full article...)

Bank One Corporation was an Americanbank founded in 1968 and at its peak the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It traded on theNew York Stock Exchange under thestock symbol ONE. The company merged withJPMorgan Chase & Co. on July 1, 2004, with Bank One CEOJamie Dimon soon becoming CEO and Chairman of the combined company but under JPMorgan Chase branding. The company had its headquarters in the Bank One Plaza (nowChase Tower) in theChicago Loop inChicago,Illinois, now the headquarters ofChase's retail banking division.

Bank One traces its roots to the merger of Illinois basedFirst Chicago NBD, and Ohio-basedFirst Banc Group (later Bank One), a holding company for the City National Bank inColumbus, Ohio. (Full article...)

BNP Paribas (French pronunciation:[beɛnpepaʁiba]; sometimes referred to asBNPP, Paribas orBNP) is a Frenchmultinationaluniversal bank andfinancial servicesholding company headquartered inParis. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial institutions,Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) andParibas. It also incorporates many other major institutions through successive acquisitions, includingFortis Bank inBelgium,Direkt Anlage Bank inGermany,Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Italy,Banque Générale du Luxembourg inLuxembourg, andTürk Ekonomi Bankası inTurkey. The group has also been present in theUnited States through its subsidiariesBank of the West until 2023 andFirst Hawaiian Bank until 2019. With 190,000 employees, the bank is organized into three major business areas: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services (CPBS); Investment & Protection Services (IPS); and Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB).

BNP Paribas is listed onEuronext Paris and is a component of theEuro Stoxx 50stock market index. It is the second largest bank in Europe and eighth largest bank in the world by total assets. It became one of the five largest banks in the world following the2008 financial crisis. It is considered asystemically important bank by theFinancial Stability Board. In theForbes Global 2000, BNP Paribas was ranked as the 33rd largest public company in the world. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force ofEuropean Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by theEuropean Central Bank. (Full article...)

Bank of Communications (BOCOM orBankComm) is a Chinesemultinational banking andfinancial services corporation. It was originally established in 1908 and was one of a handful of domestic Chinese banks that issued banknotes in modern history. Following theChinese Communist Revolution in 1949, the mainland operation of that bank were merged into thePeople's Bank of China andPeople's Construction Bank of China under the Communistsingle-tier banking system, while its continuation inTaiwan eventually became part ofMega International Commercial Bank.

In 1986, the Bank of Communications was revived in the mainland as a commercial credit institution. It was listed onthe Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in June 2005 and theShanghai Stock Exchange in May 2007. The Bank was ranked No. 151 among theFortune Global 500 in terms of operating income and No. 11 among the global top 1,000 banks in terms of Tier 1 capital rated by the London-based magazineThe Banker. In 2023, the company was ranked 53rd in theForbes Global 2000. (Full article...)

Chemical Bank, headquartered inNew York City, was the principal operating subsidiary of Chemical Banking Corporation, abank holding company. In 1996, it acquiredChase Bank, adopted the Chase name, and became the largest bank in the United States. Prior to the 1996 merger, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees. In addition to operations in the U.S., it had a major presence in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It was active incorporate banking as well asretail banking andinvestment banking and underwritingcorporate bonds andequity.

The bank was founded in 1824 as a subsidiary of the New York Chemical Manufacturing Company byBalthazar P. Melick and others; the manufacturing operations were sold by 1851. Major acquisitions by the bank includedCorn Exchange Bank in 1954,Texas Commerce Bank in 1987, andManufacturers Hanover in 1991. The bank converted to the holding company format in 1968. (Full article...)

Washington Mutual, Inc. (often abbreviated toWaMu) was an Americansavings bank holding company based inSeattle. It was the parent company ofWashington Mutual Bank, which was the largestsavings and loan association in theUnited States until its collapse in 2008.

On September 25, 2008, the United StatesOffice of Thrift Supervision (OTS) seized WaMu's banking operations and placed them under thereceivership of theFederal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The OTS took the action due to the withdrawal of US$16.7 billion in deposits during a 9-daybank run (amounting to 9% of the deposits it had held on June 30, 2008). The FDIC sold the banking subsidiaries (minus unsecured debt and equity claims) toJPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion, which had been considering acquiring WaMu as part of a plan internally nicknamed "Project West". All WaMu branches were rebranded as Chase branches by the end of 2009. The holding company was left with $33 billion in assets, and $8 billion in debt, after being stripped of its banking subsidiary by the FDIC. The next day, it filed forChapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy in Delaware, where it was incorporated. (Full article...)

Postal Savings Bank of China Co., Ltd. also known asPSBC is a Chineseretail bank andfinancial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, China. PSBC provides basicfinancial services, especially tosmall and medium enterprises,rural andlow income customers. As of 31 December 2017, PSBC has 39,798 branches covering allregions of China. PSBC was ranked #27 inForbes Global 2000 in 2023.

PSBC was set up with an initial capital ofRMB20 billion in 2007 from theState Post Bureau. Today it has RMB1.5 trillion in deposits and the second largest number of branches, after theAgricultural Bank of China. (Full article...)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized asJPMorganChase) is an American multinational banking institution headquartered inNew York City and incorporated inDelaware. It isthe largest bank in the United States, and the world'slargest bank by market capitalization as of 2025. As the largest of theBig Four banks in America, the firm is consideredsystemically important by theFinancial Stability Board. Its size and scale have often led to enhanced regulatory oversight as well as the development of an internal "Fortress Balance Sheet". The firm has had its global headquarters on270 Park Avenue inMidtown Manhattan since 2025.

JPMorgan Chase was created in 2000 by the merger of New York City banksJ.P. Morgan & Co. andChase Manhattan Company. Through its predecessors, the firm's early history can be traced to 1799, with the founding of what became the Bank of the Manhattan Company. J.P. Morgan & Co. was founded in 1871 by the American financierJ. P. Morgan, who launched theHouse of Morgan on23 Wall Street as a national purveyor of commercial, investment, and private banking services. Today, the firm is a major provider of investment banking services, through corporate advisory,mergers and acquisitions, sales and trading, and public offerings. Their private banking franchise and asset management division are amongthe world's largest in terms of total assets. Its retail banking and credit card offerings are provided via theChase brand worldwide. (Full article...)

Toronto-Dominion Bank (French:Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business asTD Bank Group (Groupe Banque TD), and commonly known as justTD, is a Canadianmultinational banking andfinancial services corporation headquartered inToronto, Ontario. The bank was created on February 1, 1955, through the merger of theBank of Toronto and theDominion Bank, which were founded in 1855 and 1869, respectively. It is one of twoBig Five banks of Canada founded in Toronto, the other being theCanadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

In 2021, according toStandard & Poor's, TD Bank Group was the largest bank in Canada by total assets and also by market capitalization, a top 15 bank in North America, and the 26thlargest bank in the world. In 2019, it was designated aglobal systemically important bank by theFinancial Stability Board. In 2023, the company was ranked 43rd in theForbes Global 2000. (Full article...)

Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) (Portuguese pronunciation:[ˈkajʃɐʒɨˈɾaldɨðɨˈpɔzituʃ]) is aPortuguesestate-ownedbankingcorporation, and the largest bank in Portugal, established in Lisbon in 1876.

CGD now has presence in 23 countries spanning four continents through branches, representative offices or direct equity interests in local financial institutions. CGD is the largest Portuguese financial group, with the highest domestic market shares in key areas such as customer deposits, loans and advances to customers, mortgages, insurance, mutual funds and real estate leasing (11.4%). Based on assets, it ranks 109 in terms of the world's major banks. CGD is the 69th largest European bank. (Full article...)