Ex.19. Translate the following text into English.

 

Аналіз багатовікової світової історії банків­ської справи та механізму функціонування гро­шового ринку дає підстави віднести до банків­ської діяльності комплекс з трьох посередниць­ких операцій:

— приймати грошові вклади від клієнтів;

— надавати клієнтам позички і створювати нові платіжні засоби;

— здійснювати розрахунки між клієнтами. Виконання цього комплексу операцій мож­на вважати визначальною економічною ознакою банку взагалі — як центрального, так і комерційного". Вказані операції є базовими, вони створюють первинну сферу банківської діяльності. Це місце їх визначається самою природою грошового ринку.

Уявімо собі таку гіпотетичну ситуацію, коли на грошовому ринку діє тільки один фінансовий посередник. Щоб ринок міг функціонувати нор­мально, цей посередник повинен прийняти на вклади всі вільні грошові кошти від продавців, передати їх покупцям і здійснити розрахунки по їх зобов'язаннях один з одним та з третіми особа­ми. Тільки в цьому випадку попит і пропозиція на грошовому ринку будуть реалізовані і такий посередник виконає повністю свою посередниць­ку місію. При невиконанні будь-якої з цих опера­цій зв'язок між попитом і пропозицією на грошо­вому ринку буде розірваним або він повинен буде здійснюватися у формі прямих контактів між продавцями і покупцями грошей.

Отже, комплекс з трьох базових операцій створює первинну сферу банківської діяльності, а фінансовий посередник, що виконує цей комп­лекс, є банківським інститутом, банком в еконо­мічному розумінні.

В дійсності фінансові посередники, крім базових, можуть виконувати й багато інших, не базових, але потрібних для грошового ринку операцій. Такі банки прийнято називати універсальними. Але якщо фінансовий посередник виконує не всі базові операції (тільки одну чи дві з них), чи можна вважати банком в економічному розумінні, На нашу думку, якщо такий посередник не забезпечує комплексу базових операцій грошового ринку, він не є банком в повному розумінні цього слова, а скоріше це частина такого банку, яка може існувати тільки в кооперації з іншими подібними посередниками, що виконують решту базових операцій грошового ринку. Такі банки прийнято називати спеціалізованими.

Якщо ж посередник грошового ринку не виконує жодної з названих базових операцій, тобто позбавлений ознак банку, його відносять до небанківських фінансових інститутів.

 

 

Text B

BEFORE YOU READ

Answer the following questions.

When did you visit a bank last? Why?

Read the text about the services British banks provide to their clients and compare them to those provided by the banks in Ukraine.

BANK SERVICES

Commercial banks offer a wide range of services to their clients. These services can be broadly classified into 3 parts. They are:

· Payment services

· Financial intermediation

· Other or ancillary services

Payment services. The Payment service is a backbone of the entire money flow in the economy.Payments are an essential part of everyday life, which underpin all forms of economic activity, and affect everyone – as individuals and businesses.

We all make a variety of payments every day with the expectation that these payments are secure and reliable. Most consumers are unaware of what happens behind the scenes, but, by their very nature, payment systems require a high degree of co-operation by numerous different stakeholders for a payment system to function.

The UK payment industry environment can be broadly categorised into the following payment types:

Cash	Banknotes and coins
Bulk electronic payments	Direct Debits Bacs Direct Credits Standing orders
Phone and online banking payments	Faster Payments Standing Orders
High-value payments	CHAPS Sterling
Card-based instruments	Debit cards Pre-paid cards Contactless cards Credit cards Charge cards
Paper-based instruments	Cheques and paper credits

 

Compared with other countries, the UK payments market is categorised by high proportions of electronic and card payments. Whilst the vast majority of payments are made between UK counterparties, payments to and from Europe and the rest of the world are steadily increasing.

Financial intermediation. This is one of the oldest functions of banks which received deposits from customers and then on-lent these funds to borrowers. This is the core business of the banking system and it will continue as long as the Banking system exists.

There are three general types of bank accounts offered by the banks, a basic bank account, a current account and a savings account.

Whether you are starting or expanding a business, you may need to seek financial help from an external source. Banks offer short- and long-term debt finance via loans and overdrafts as well as other types of finance. These are available by application to any high street bank, usually involving a quick decision process.

Other or ancillary services. These are newer services which were launched by different financial institutions are available by application to any high street bank. These services include investment advice, foreign exchange facilities, wealth management, brokerage, safe deposit boxes and vaults, custody services, and so on. These services generate income for the bank in the form of commission which is also termed as Non-fund income for banks. We will consider them later.

 

Ex.1. Find in the text the following word combinations and translate the sentences in which they are used:

A backbone of the entire money flow; a high degree of co-operation; to be made between UK counterparties; to on-lend funds to borrowers; an external source; to be available by application to any high street bank; generate income.

 

Ex.2. Find English equivalents to the word combinations given below:

Лежати в основі економічної діяльності; бути безпечним та надійним; за лаштунками; електронні та карткові платежі; постійно зростати; основний вид діяльності; розширювати діяльність підприємства; шукати фінансової допомоги з зовнішніх джерел; швидке прийняття рішень; послуги з обміну валюти; управління активами; брокерські послуги.

EX.3. Understanding details

Mark the sentences T (true) or F (false) according to the information in the text. Find and read out the part of the text, which gives the correct information.

1. Thereis no exact classification of financial services.

2. Payment services are crusial for the economy.

3. All customers are familiar with the procedures of processing payments.

4. Banks use few types of payments.

5. Most payments in the UK are cashless.

6. Very few British banks are engaged in financial intermediation.

7. Banks try to diversify their services.

Ex.4. Answer the questions.

1. What categories of services do the banks provide to their customers?

2. Why payment services considered so essential for the economny?

3. What categpries do payment services fall into?

4. Which is the oldest function of banks?

5. What are the tree main types of bank accounts offered by the banks?

6. What sort of financial help can banks offer to their customers?

7. What does the category of ancillary services comprise?

 

Ex.5. Read the text about different types of payments in the UK. Make detailed presentation dwelling upon the features of each type of payment.

Types of Payments

Automated Payments

In the same way that technology has impacted the way we choose to live and work, so it has changed our payments. Increasingly, we are choosing to use automated payments rather than paper-based payments behaviour such as cheques and bankers' drafts.
In 2009 there were a record 6.2 billion automated transactions (5.6 billion of those were processed by Bacs (Bankers' Automated Clearing Services)). 92% of automated transactions are bulk transactions generated by organisations and businesses both large and small and are:

• Direct debits, used mainly to pay utility bills, life and general insurance premiums and various subscriptions;
• Direct credits, used mainly for salary payments, pensions, annuities and child benefit.
• The remaining 8% is made up of inter-bank telephone and online banking payments and standing order payments.

Standing Orders

A standing order is an instruction you give to your bank or building society to make payments, usually on a regular basis, to a UK bank or building society account.

Any person or company with a current account at a bank or building society in the UK can set up a standing order.

Your bank or building society will, on the day specified, debit your account and transfer the money to the bank or building society account of the recipient.

The money will be transferred either through the Bacs system or increasingly from June 2008 through the Faster Payments Service.

Bacs Direct Credit

A Direct Credit enables large and small organisations to make payments by electronic transfer directly into bank or building society accounts.

Direct Credit is mainly used for paying wages and salaries - over 70% of the UK workforce is paid via Direct Credit. In total, Direct Credit is used to pay over four million wages every week and nearly 20 million salaries a month.

Direct Credit can be used for a wide variety of other payments. Over 150,000 organisations use Direct Credit for supplier payments, pensions, employee expenses, insurance settlements, dividends and refunds.

Internet and Phone

Multi-channel banking has led to a huge increase in phone and Internet banking in the last couple of years with a corresponding rise in volumes of one-off automated payments.

Bacs Direct Debit

A Direct Debit is an instruction from a customer to their bank or building society authorising an organisation to collect varying amounts from their account, as long as the customer has been given advance notice of the collection amounts and dates.

It's a convenient way for you to pay household bills or make regular payments to any organisation that accepts Direct Debit payments. It saves time, is more convenient and gives you greater control over your money.

The Direct Debit Scheme also protects you and your money by means of the Direct Debit Guarantee. All banks and building societies that take part in the Direct Debit Scheme operate this Guarantee.

Cheque & Credit Clearing

Cheques are written orders from account holders instructing their banks to pay specified sums of money to named beneficiaries. They are not legal tender but are legal documents and their use is governed by the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, and the Cheques Acts of 1957 and 1992.

Bankers' Drafts

Bankers' drafts are cheques drawn directly on the account of a bank rather than the account of a customer. They provide added assurance as the bankers’ drafts are unlikely to be returned unpaid due to lack of funds. However, it is important to note that they do not provide a guarantee against fraudulent use. For example, they may be lost or stolen and then used fraudulently.

Cheque Clearing

There is often confusion about how the clearing system works and the time it takes for a cheque to clear. In November 2007 the 2-4-6 changes to the cheque clearing system came into force, giving customers increased clarity and certainty.

The clearing does not operate on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays — as settlement across Bank of England accounts can only take place Monday to Friday.

Cash

More than 2,500 years after the first use of coins as payment tokens and over 300 years since the first Bank of England banknotes were issued, cash remains the most common payment method. Although the proportion of payments made by cash is in slow decline, in 2009 there were still around 21.2 billion payments made in cash, accounting for two-thirds of all payments by volume. The value of these payments was around £266 billion, representing 23% of all payments made by consumers.

Cash payment volumes are expected to continue to decline slowly and migration to card and automated payments are likely to be important influencesThe most popular method of obtaining cash to make purchases is from a cash machine. 71% of the cash acquired in 2008 came from cash machines. Other sources such as wages and benefit payments are reducing in importance.

There are many players in the cash cycle in which notes and coin are transported after having been printed and minted, supplied to businesses and consumers, paid into accounts and processed prior to reissue. These include cash processing centres, secure carrier centres and vehicle fleets, branches of financial institutions, retailer outlets and other service providers such as the vending and transport industries.

 

CHAPS

CHAPS Sterling is a same-day automated payment system for processing sterling payments made within the UK, between its member banks.

The main benefit of CHAPS is that it is fast as the money is transferred the same day. Unlike other forms of payment such as cheques, CHAPS payments are irrevocable.

CHAPS Sterling is one of the largest real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems in the world. Banks themselves use CHAPS to move money around the financial system, but it is also used regularly for other types of payments including:

• business-to-business payments;
• by solicitors/licensed conveyancers to transfer the purchase price of a house between the bank accounts of those involved;
• by individuals buying or selling a high-value item, such as a car, who need a secure, urgent, same-day guaranteed payment.

Faster Payments

Faster Payments is the first new payments service to be introduced in the UK for more than 20 years. The world leading service enables phone, internet and standing order payments to move within a few hours - almost at the touch of a button.

13 banks and building societies were founding members of the new service in 2008. Other financial institutions are able to join, either as members, or to access the system through agency arrangements with a member - just as they do with other payment systems.

The development of the Faster Payments Service was a massive and complex project involving significant investment. The infrastructure was launched on 27th May 2008 and the volume of Faster Payments made has been undergoing rapid growth ever since. By the end of 2008 around two-thirds of phone and internet payments were processed through Faster Payments and since the start of 2012, all internet and phone payments have been sent via Faster Payments.

The new service runs alongside existing UK payment schemes, Bacs (for Direct Debits and Direct Credits) and CHAPS.