An account that two or more people hold is a ______.
  A. joint account         B. term -deposit account     C. savings account

In order to withdraw money the bank requires your ______.
  A. depositor              B. interest                     C. signature

The bank records all transactions of an account in the customer's ______.
  A. withdrawal slip       B. assets                     C. passbook

Many banks work with so many different customers and accounts that they need ______ to record all transactions.
  A. deposit slips          B. computers                 C. parties

You have to ______ your check in order to cash it.
  A. withdraw             B. endorse                   C. accommodate

The bank charges a ______ to cover the cost of bookkeeping.
  A. payee                 B. transaction                C. fee

I wrote a check for more money than I have in my account.  I'm afraid I'm ______.
  A. overdrawn             B. insufficient funds          C. minimum balance

The monthly statement gives you a record of all the ______ of your checking account.
  A. subtracted            B. negotiable                 C. transactions

A check that can be signed over to a third party is ______.
  A. subtracted            B. negotiable                 C. overdrawn

"You are allowed to write up to ten checks without a service charge."
"That's all? You mean ten checks is the ______?"
    A. balance             B. maximum                 C. minimum

If you need money I can ______ you some.
    A. pay back            B. borrow                    C. lend

When my friend needed a loan he offered the bank his house as ______.
    A. debt                 B. term                      C. collateral

James has not paid back two loans. He must have a terrible ______.
   A. credit rating         B. charge card               C. principal

If you ______ your car loan, the bank will take possession of your car.
   A. pay off              B. default on                 C. compute

In order to calculate the monthly payments on your loan, the bank adds the interest to the ______ and divides the total by the number of months.
   A. tenure               B. principal                  C. charge account

investigate, quantity, discount, negligence, replements, discrepancy, packing list, unsaleable, inferior, penalty clause, up to standard

   Complaints are often received by companies who ship consignments overseas. These complaints are sometimes about the  (26)   of goods received. Perhaps not enough goods were sent, perhaps too many. And sometimes it is a complaint that the wrong goods were sent.
   Often there are complaints about  (27)   packing, which can cause damage to the goods. Sometimes the complaint is about inferior quality.  Buyers in this case often complain that the goods are not  (28)   There may be a  (29)   between the description of the goods in the brochure and the goods which actually arrived.
   A complaint may be about a delay in shipment, although companies often have a  (30)   in their contract to protect them against loss from delay.
    Complaints about damage are usually the business of insurance companies, but if the damage is caused by the  (31)   of the packers, then the insurance companies will not accept responsibility.
   When there is a complaint that the wrong goods were sent, or too many, or too few, then it is always necessary to check the  (32)   for the cases, as well as the invoice. Then the agent must  (33)   what happened. The goods may still be in the port of unloading.
   Bad, inferior or inadequate packing may cause damage to goods in transit. The buyers may accept damaged goods if the supplier offers a  (34)  , but if the goods arc badly damaged they may be  (35)  , and in this case the buyer will demand replacements.

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 

30. 

31. 

32. 

33. 

34. 

35. 

                                      We meets the challenge of globalization
   Ten years ago, US bankers and brokers talked about globalization. Capital barriers would fall, there would be seamless 24 - hour trading across time zones and full - service institutions would serve farmers in Iowa to car workers in Osaka.
   As the US capital markets enter the 1990s, the reality is that globalization is still in its early stages and next decade as it was in the last.  There has, however, been a qualitative change in the rhetoric.
   Then, globalization was seen in the US as an opportunity. Now the US is far less confident of its ability to dominate the global market and is showing signs of falling behind its competitors. Globalization is now an urgent challenge.
   Mr. Curtis Welling, managing director in charge of equities at First Boston, says, "The US has had a very geocentric view. Our hegemony over world capital flows was almost regarded as a birthright. As far as important capital flows are concerned, there was a real danger of the world passing us by. The US was in danger of becoming irrelevant."
   While the US was once slow to realise its competitive position in world financial markets could be eroded.  Mr. Welling believes that there is a growing awareness of the need to act quickly to position the nation's markets and financial institutions for the future.
   This concern has been crystallised in regulatory initiatives, legislative proposals and product innovations. Progressive attitudes at both the US Federal Reserve and the Securities and Ex- change Commission (SEC) are central to these efforts.
   The SEC, which has just formed an Office of International Affairs, has shifted into top gear to harmonise regulations with overseas counterparts to promote the free and efficient flow of capital. The nuts and bolts of clearance and settlement, for example, are a priorty.
   Mr. Welling of First Boston, puts the challenge in graphic terms: We have gone about as far as we can go with broadbrush conceptual descriptions of the global market. We can see the house, it looks great but nobody can live in it until the plumbing and electricity is in place.
   In spite of all the talk of the global markets, it is startling that US pension funds have committed less than 3% of their 2 600 billion in assets to non - US securities. One key reason for this is that investors and traders have to negotiate a minefield of different regulations when operating in overseas markets.

Correspondent banking faces a problem of definition. Five years ago the business was preoccupied with electronic funds transfer. The spread of Swift's messaging network and the developing of the equally efficient clearing systems promised to elevate the medium through which banks communicate and fitted the traditional concept of correspondent banks talking to each other.
   By streamlining this function, however, the nature of the business changed and the importance of nurturing interbank relationships dwindled in the eyes of some correspondent bankers. Technology tends to lead to concentration, because the customer has gone to the bank that is bigger and faster, and can handle more volume, explains Ian Cormack, who heads Citicorp's financial institutions group in London and sits on the council of the clearing system in the UK.
   Moving or receiving money has always been at the heart of interbank activity. Lawrence Grand, international banking director at Barclays, makes the fundamental point that correspondent banking will always exist in a world where banks have to talk to other banks to conduct money transmissions. This view is shared at Manufacturers Hanover, where Joseph Long-aberdi, a banking vice president and senior representative, believes funds transfer business is still the major product over which correspondent banks wage battle.
   But while the need to balance interbank accounts remains a core function of the business, the complexion of the funds passing through the payments system has altered dramatically. The rise and rise of financial activity has displaced trade - related flows, particularly in the period after Big Bang, until today around 90 per cent of the business consists of financial transactions, estimates Mr. Cormack.
   Volumes continue to rise significantly in the major clearing centres, largely feeding off growth in securities processing and foreign exchange. The value of dollar - dominated transactions passing through New York's clearing house inter - bank payments system (Chips) increased by 23.7 percent last year to a daily average of $ 526 billion, equivalent to 126 840 transactions a day, and compared with $ 425 billion and 113 758 transactions in 1986.
   In London's sterling market the value of daily transactions passing through the clearing house automated payments system (Chaps) climbed by 28.5 percent in the year ending March 1988 to ￡45 billion, or 23 441 transactions a day, compared with ￡3 billion and 20 958 in the previous months.
   Keeping pace with growth has not been easy, particularly for the banks which for reasons of size, cost and strategy have been confined to a marginal role in the business. Commitment to the technological infrastructure is vital. Five years ago Manufacturers Hanover had 75 million invested in a worldwide telecommunications network. Anyone who baulked at such an investment five years ago would find it difficult to enter the market today.

Money guarantees that there is always a double coincidence of wants .

The participants in the financial system can be classified into five broad groups: savers; investors and other borrowers; financial intermediaries; brokers and advisers; and regulators.

                           A bank manager speaks
   My name is Jane Carson and I'm the manager of a savings bank in Portland, Oregon. My bank is open every day from 8: 30 in the morning until 4: O0 in the afternoon. On Fridays the bank remains open until 6:30 in the evening.
   Friday is our busiest day. Many people get their paychecks on Fridays and they come into deposit them. I find that on Fridays I have to keep six windows open all day long. My bank tries very hard to reduce the amount of time that customers have to waif for service. We have many signs to remind people that they need their passbooks for all transactions and that they must fill out their deposit of withdrawal slips completely. If our depositors cooperate with us we can accommodate them with as few delays as possible.
   Of course, people do forget. The tellers inform me that many customers still forget to endorse their checks or try to open or close joint accounts with the signature of only one of the parties. But I hope that my program of information for customers will reduce such delays.
   Banking has changed a lot in recent years. Computers now do much of the work that the tellers used to do. As computers improve, they are able to accomplish more difficult tasks and they help us serve our customers better.
   Another important change in banking, especially for savings banks, are the many different term deposit accounts that are now available to our customers. Since these certificates of deposit offer very high interest rates they help attract depositors to our bank. I make sure that my staff always has the latest information about these accounts so that they can advise our depositors correctly.
   My bank is not a very large bank. The total of our current assets and fixed assets comes to 15 550 000 dollars. I'm proud of our balance sheet. Although some banks across the country are having difficulties, my bank has more assets than liabilities. We are solvent and growing. The number of customers we serve has increased this year and I expect that it will continue to grow in the future.
   Comprehension check
   State whether each sentence is true or false based on the reading.

44. 
Jane Carson's bank closes at 3: 00 p. in. on Fridays.

45. 
Fridays are very busy days at Jane Carson's bank.

46. 
Ms. Carson has an information program for customers.

47. 
Computers and term- deposit accounts have brought changes to banks.

48. 
Jane Carson's bank has more liabilities than assets.

                               Checking accounts
   In the United States, checking accounts are available only at commercial banks. Commercial banks specialize in demand deposits, such as checking accounts. A checking account is money that a customer deposits in order to use that money to write checks. Saving accounts pay the depositor interest but checking accounts do not. In fact, checking account customers pay the bank a service charge for the bookkeeping involved in administering the account.
   The method of recordkeeping is also different in savings accounts and checking accounts. A depositor must present his passbook for any savings account transaction. The bank records these transactions in the depositor's passbook. Checking account customers, however, do not have passbooks. They themselves record the amounts of the checks that they write and they receive a monthly statement from the bank. This statement lists all the checks that the bank paid and all deposits that the account holder made during the month. The bank usually sends the statements with the customer's cancelled checks. The customer then compares the balance on the statement with the balance in his own records by subtracting the total of his outstanding checks.
   There are other fees that the bank may collect from checking account holders. For instance, banks charge a fee for stopping payment to a check. When a depositor decides that be doesn't want the bank to pay a payee, but he bas already written a check to that person, he may give the bank a stop payment order. The bank will then refuse to pay this check, and charges the depositor a fee. 'Banks also charge a depositor a fee when he is overdrawn. A depositor is overdrawn when he writes a check for more money than the balance in his account: The bank marks the check "insufficient funds", returns it, and charges a penalty for it. In everyday language we say that a check returned for insufficient funds has "bounced".
   Recent changes in banking regulations have allowed savings banks to offer negotiable order of withdrawal accounts. These accounts, called N. O. W. accounts, are very similar to checking accounts but they pay interest like savings accounts. The depositor can write withdrawal orders against the balance in the account. These withdrawal orders look like checks, and depositors receive a monthly statement summarizing deposits and withdrawals. There is often no service charge if depositors keep a minimum balance in their accounts. Commercial banks also offer N. O. W. accounts.
   As far as checking accounts go, the difference between savings banks and commercial banks is growing smaller in the U. S.
   State whether each statement is true or false based on the reading.

49. 
Checking accounts are available at savings banks.

50. 
Both checking accounts and savings accounts pay interest.

51. 
Checking account holders receive a monthly statement from the bank.

52. 
There is no fee for a stop payment order.

53. 
N. O. W. accounts are not available at savings banks.