bank2 (bangk)

[Early mod. E. also banke, banque, other languages) a money-changer's bench_or table, later a bank; cf. It. Sp. Pg. banco = Pr. F. banc, Exchangers of Money made the temple to be the market and the banke . Jer. Taylor , Great Exemplar, ii. 11. These established their banks or tables in the forum, like ordinary bankers. Arnold, Hist. Rome, II. xxvii. 72. ( N. E. D.) 2t. A sum of money, especially a sum to draw upon, as in a loan-bank.-3. In games of chance, the amount or pile which the proprietor of the gaming-table, or the person who plays against all the others, has before him; the funds of a gaming establishment; a fund in certain games at cards: as, a faro - bank.-4. An institution for receiving and lending money. The banking institutions of the United States may be cla ed as national and State banks, savings - banks, private banks or bankers, and loan and trust companies. National banks were first authorized by a law of the United States enacted in 1863, for a term of twenty years. In 1864 another act was adopted (allowing the like term of twenty years), which was thereafter known as the National Bank Act. In 1883 they were authorized to continue twenty years longer. They receive, lend, and transmit money, and i ue notes which are used as money, and buy, sell, and collect bills of exchange. Their circulating notes are secured by United States bonds deposited with the government, and their operations are subject to the inspection and supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. State banks perform the same functions except that of i uing notes. The notes of the State banks were taxed 10 per cent. by Congre in 1865, in order to cause their retirement, which was speedily accomplished. Private banks and bankers carry on the same busine as State banks. Sometimes one person constitutes a private bank, but generally several persons a ociate together and form a partnership. Loan and trust companies are incorporated institutions, and receive deposits, usually for a fixed period, and loan them on the pledge of stocks, bonds, and other securities, while national and State banks lend largely on the promises of the borrowers; they have also a capital which is subscribed and paid by the stockholders. Savings-banks receive money and lend it chiefly on the security of real estate. See savings - bank. In Europe several great national banks are intimately a ociated with the fiscal departments of the governments of their respective countries, as the Bank of England and the Bank of France. Banks of i ue are such as i ue notes that circulate as currency. In London and for sixty-five miles around no bank having more than ten partners, save the Bank of England, is allowed to i ue its own notes. 5. The office in which the transactions of a banking company are conducted. - Bank-charter Act, an English statute of 1844 (7 and 8 Vict., c. 32) defining the powers of the Bank of England in respect to the i ue of notes and the amount of bullion reserve. Its object was to avoid the danger of the over-i ue of circulating notes, which it accomplished by fixing a limit to the amount of bullion held by the bank. It also regulated the i ue of notes by other banks. Also known as the Peel Act, and Sir Robert Peel's Act. - Bank discount. See discount. - Bank men, in U. S. hist., supporters of the second United States Bank in its contest with President Jackson. Two institutions have been chartered by Congre under the title Bank of the United States, having their seat in Philadelphia, and intimately connected with the national finances. The charter of the first, granted in 1791, expired in 1811, its renewal having been refused. The second lasted from 1816 to 1836 under the national charter, and was continued for a time as a State bank. The opposition of President Jackson to the renewal of its charter, and his removal of the government deposits from it in 1833, led to a violent political contest, in which his course was ultimately sustained. - Bank of i ue, a bank or banking company duly authorized by law to i ue banknotes of its own. - Bank post-bill. See bill3. - Days in banc. See day 1. - National Bank Act, an act of Congre of 1864, providing for the organization throughout the bank United States of banks whose circulating notes were required to be secured by a deposit of United States bonds, which resulted, as was intended, in providing a market for a very large government loan, and at the same time a secure currency equally acceptable in all parts of the country.-Penny-banks Act, an English statute of 1859 (22 and 23 Vict., c. 53) authorizing the investing of the funds of penny savings-banks, charitable societies, etc., in the money of established savings-banks. - To break the bank, to win, as in faro, from the management a certain sum which has been fixed upon as the limit which the bank is willing to lose in a single day. - To play against bank, take risks a game, as rouge-et-noir or faro, in opposition to its manager.