Fractional-reserve banking
Fractional-reserve banking is the most common form of banking practised by commercial banks
worldwide.[1] It involves banks accepting deposits from customers and making loans to borrowers, while
holding in reserve an amount equal to only a fraction of the bank's deposit liabilities.[2] Bank reserves are
held as cash in the bank or as balances in the bank's account at the central bank. The minimum amount that
banks are required to hold in liquid assets is determined by the country's central bank, and is called the
reserve requirement or reserve ratio. Banks usually hold more than this minimum amount, keeping excess
reserves.
Bank deposits are usually of a relatively short-term duration while loans made by banks tend to be longer-
term – this requires banks to hold reserves to provide liquidity when deposits are withdrawn. Banks,
working on the expectation that only a proportion of depositors will seek to withdraw funds at the same
time, keep only a fraction of their liabilities as reserves. Thus, they can experience an unexpected bank run,
when depositors wish to withdraw more funds than the reserves held by the bank. In that event, the bank
experiencing the liquidity shortfall may borrow from other banks in the interbank lending market; or if there
is a general lack of liquidity among the banks, the country's central bank may act as lender of last resort to
provide banks with funds to cover this short-term shortfall.[2][3]
Because banks hold reserves in amounts that are less than the amounts of their deposit liabilities, and
because the deposit liabilities are considered money in their own right, fractional-reserve banking permits
the money supply to grow beyond the amount of the underlying base money originally created by the central
bank.[2][3] In most countries, the central bank (or other monetary policy authority) regulates bank credit
creation, imposing reserve requirements and capital adequacy ratios. This helps ensure that banks are
solvent and have enough funds to meet demand for withdrawals, and can be used to limit the process of
money creation in the banking system.[3] However, rather than directly controlling the money supply, central
banks usually pursue an interest rate target to control bank issuance of credit and the rate of inflation.[4]
Contents
History
Regulatory framework
Economic function
Money creation process
Types of money
Money multiplier
Formula
Money supplies around the world
Regulation
Central banks
Reserve requirements
Liquidity and capital management for a bank
Hypothetical example of a bank balance sheet and financial ratios
Other financial ratios
Criticisms of textbook descriptions of the monetary system
Criticisms
Criticisms on the basis of instability
Criticisms on the basis of legitimacy
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
History
Fractional-reserve banking predates the existence of governmental monetary authorities and originated
many centuries ago in bankers' realization that generally not all depositors demand payment at the same
time.[5]
In the past, savers looking to keep their coins and valuables in safekeeping depositories deposited gold and
silver at goldsmiths, receiving in exchange a note for their deposit (see Bank of Amsterdam). These notes
gained acceptance as a medium of exchange for commercial transactions and thus became an early form of
circulating paper money.[6] As the notes were used directly in trade, the goldsmiths observed that people
would not usually redeem all their notes at the same time, and they saw the opportunity to invest their coin
reserves in interest-bearing loans and bills. This generated income for the goldsmiths but left them with
more notes on issue than reserves with which to pay them. A process was started that altered the role of the
goldsmiths from passive guardians of bullion, charging fees for safe storage, to interest-paying and interest-
earning banks. Thus fractional-reserve banking was born.
If creditors (note holders of gold originally deposited) lost faith in the ability of a bank to pay their notes,
however, many would try to redeem their notes at the same time. If, in response, a bank could not raise
enough funds by calling in loans or selling bills, the bank would either go into insolvency or default on its
notes. Such a situation is called a bank run and caused the demise of many early banks.[6]
These early financial crises led to the creation of central banks. The Swedish Riksbank was the world's first
central bank, created in 1668. Many nations followed suit in the late 1600s to establish central banks which
were given the legal power to set the reserve requirement, and to specify the form in which such assets
(called the monetary base) are required to be held.[7] In order to mitigate the impact of bank failures and
financial crises, central banks were also granted the authority to centralize banks' storage of precious metal
reserves, thereby facilitating transfer of gold in the event of bank runs, to regulate commercial banks, to
impose reserve requirements, and to act as lender-of-last-resort if any bank faced a bank run. The emergence
of central banks reduced the risk of bank runs which is inherent in fractional-reserve banking, and it allowed
the practice to continue as it does today.[3]
During the twentieth century, the role of the central bank grew to include influencing or managing various
macroeconomic policy variables, including measures of inflation, unemployment, and the international
balance of payments. In the course of enacting such policy, central banks have from time to time attempted
to manage interest rates, reserve requirements, and various measures of the money supply and monetary
base.[8]
Regulatory framework
In most legal systems, a bank deposit is not a bailment. In other words, the funds deposited are no longer the
property of the customer. The funds become the property of the bank, and the customer in turn receives an
asset called a deposit account (a checking or savings account). That deposit account is a liability on the
balance sheet of the bank. Each bank is legally authorized to issue credit up to a specified multiple of its
reserves, so reserves available to satisfy payment of deposit liabilities are less than the total amount which
the bank is obligated to pay in satisfaction of demand deposits.
Fractional-reserve banking ordinarily functions smoothly. Relatively few depositors demand payment at any
given time, and banks maintain a buffer of reserves to cover depositors' cash withdrawals and other demands
for funds. However, during a bank run or a generalized financial crisis, demands for withdrawal can exceed
the bank's funding buffer, and the bank will be forced to raise additional reserves to avoid defaulting on its
obligations. A bank can raise funds from additional borrowings (e.g., by borrowing in the interbank lending
market or from the central bank), by selling assets, or by calling in short-term loans. If creditors are afraid
that the bank is running out of reserves or is insolvent, they have an incentive to redeem their deposits as
soon as possible before other depositors access the remaining reserves. Thus the fear of a bank run can
actually precipitate the crisis.[note 1]
Many of the practices of contemporary bank regulation and central banking, including centralized clearing
of payments, central bank lending to member banks, regulatory auditing, and government-administered
deposit insurance, are designed to prevent the occurrence of such bank runs.
Economic function
Fractional-reserve banking allows banks to provide credit, which represent immediate liquidity to
depositors. The banks also provide longer-term loans to borrowers, and act as financial intermediaries for
those funds.[3][9] Less liquid forms of deposit (such as time deposits) or riskier classes of financial assets
(such as equities or long-term bonds) may lock up a depositor's wealth for a period of time, making it
unavailable for use on demand. This "borrowing short, lending long," or maturity transformation function of
fractional-reserve banking is a role that many economists consider to be an important function of the
commercial banking system.[10]
The process of fractional-reserve banking expands the money supply of the economy but also increases the
risk that a bank cannot meet its depositor withdrawals. Modern central banking allows banks to practice
fractional-reserve banking with inter-bank business transactions with a reduced risk of bankruptcy.[11][12]
Additionally, according to macroeconomic theory, a well-regulated fractional-reserve bank system also
benefits the economy by providing regulators with powerful tools for influencing the money supply and
interest rates. Many economists believe that these should be adjusted by the government to promote
macroeconomic stability.[13]
Money creation process
When a loan is made by the commercial bank, the bank is keeping only a fraction of central bank money as
reserves and the money supply expands by the size of the loan.[3] This process is called "deposit
multiplication".
The proceeds of most bank loans are not in the form of currency. Banks typically make loans by accepting
promissory notes in exchange for credits they make to the borrowers' deposit accounts.[14][15] Deposits
created in this way are sometimes called derivative deposits and are part of the process of creation of money
by commercial banks.[16] Issuing loan proceeds in the form of paper currency and current coins is
considered to be a weakness in internal control.[17]
The money creation process is also affected by the currency drain ratio (the propensity of the public to hold
banknotes rather than deposit them with a commercial bank), and the safety reserve ratio (excess reserves
beyond the legal requirement that commercial banks voluntarily hold). Data for "excess" reserves and vault
cash are published regularly by the Federal Reserve in the United States.[18]
Types of money
There are two types of money created in a fractional-reserve banking system operating with a central
bank:[19][20][21]
1. Central bank money: money created or adopted by the central bank regardless of its form –
precious metals, commodity certificates, banknotes, coins, electronic money loaned to
commercial banks, or anything else the central bank chooses as its form of money.
2. Commercial bank money: demand deposits in the commercial banking system; also referred
to as "chequebook money", "sight deposits" or simply "credit".
When a deposit of central bank money is made at a commercial bank, the central bank money is removed
from circulation and added to the commercial banks' reserves (it is no longer counted as part of M1 money
supply). Simultaneously, an equal amount of new commercial bank money is created in the form of bank
deposits.
The exact mechanism behind the creation of commercial bank money has been a controversial issue. In
2014, a study titled "Can banks individually create money out of nothing? — The theories and the empirical
evidence" empirically tested the manner in which this type of money is created by monitoring a cooperating
bank's internal records.[22] The study finds that:
This study establishes for the first time empirically that banks individually create money out of
nothing. The money supply is created as ‘fairy dust’ produced by the banks individually, "out of
thin air".
Money multiplier
The money multiplier is a heuristic used to demonstrate the maximum amount of broad money that could be
created by commercial banks for a given fixed amount of base money and reserve ratio. This theoretical
maximum is never reached, because some eligible reserves are held as cash outside of banks.[23] Rather than
holding the quantity of base money fixed, central banks have recently pursued an interest rate target to
control bank issuance of credit indirectly so the ceiling implied by the money multiplier does not impose a
limit on money creation in practice.[4]
Formula
The money multiplier, m, is the inverse of the reserve requirement, R:[24]
Money supplies around the world
In countries where fractional-reserve
banking is prevalent, commercial bank
money usually forms the majority of the
money supply.[19] The acceptance and
value of commercial bank money is
based on the fact that it can be
exchanged freely at a commercial bank
for central bank money.[19][20]
The actual increase in the money supply
through this process may be lower, as (at
each step) banks may choose to hold
reserves in excess of the statutory
minimum, borrowers may let some
funds sit idle, and some members of the
public may choose to hold cash, and
there also may be delays or frictions in
Components of US money supply (currency, M1, M2, and M3)
the lending process.[25] Government since 1959. In January 2007, the amount of "central bank money"
regulations may also be used to limit the was $750.5 billion while the amount of "commercial bank money"
money creation process by preventing (in the M2 supply) was $6.33 trillion. M1 is currency plus demand
banks from giving out loans even though deposits; M2 is M1 plus time deposits, savings deposits, and some
the reserve requirements have been money-market funds; and M3 is M2 plus large time deposits and
fulfilled.[26] other forms of money. The M3 data ends in 2006 because the
federal reserve ceased reporting it (https://www.federalreserve.go
v/releases/h6/discm3.htm).
Regulation
Because the nature of fractional-reserve
banking involves the possibility of bank
runs, central banks have been created
throughout the world to address these
problems.[8][27]
Central banks
Government controls and bank
regulations related to fractional-reserve
banking have generally been used to
impose restrictive requirements on note
issue and deposit taking on the one
hand, and to provide relief from
bankruptcy and creditor claims, and/or Components of the euro money supply 1998–2007
protect creditors with government funds,
when banks defaulted on the other hand.
Such measures have included:
1. Minimum required reserve ratios (RRRs)
2. Minimum capital ratios
3. Government bond deposit requirements for note issue
4. 100% Marginal Reserve requirements for note issue, such as the Bank Charter Act 1844 (UK)
5. Sanction on bank defaults and protection from creditors for many months or even years, and
6. Central bank support for distressed banks, and government guarantee funds for notes and
deposits, both to counteract bank runs and to protect bank creditors.
Reserve requirements
The currently prevailing view of reserve requirements is that they are intended to prevent banks from:
1. generating too much money by making too many loans against the narrow money deposit
base;
2. having a shortage of cash when large deposits are withdrawn (although the reserve is thought
to be a legal minimum, it is understood that in a crisis or bank run, reserves may be made
available on a temporary basis).
In some jurisdictions, (such as the European Union), the central bank does not require reserves to be held
during the day. Reserve requirements are intended to ensure that the banks have sufficient supplies of highly
liquid assets, so that the system operates in an orderly fashion and maintains public confidence.
In others (such as the United States), the central bank does not require reserves to be held at any time - that
is, it does not impose reserve requirements.
In addition to reserve requirements, there are other required financial ratios that affect the amount of loans
that a bank can fund. The capital requirement ratio is perhaps the most important of these other required
ratios. When there are no mandatory reserve requirements, which are considered by some economists to
restrict lending, the capital requirement ratio acts to prevent an infinite amount of bank lending.
Liquidity and capital management for a bank
To avoid defaulting on its obligations, the bank must maintain a minimal reserve ratio that it fixes in
accordance with, notably, regulations and its liabilities. In practice this means that the bank sets a reserve
ratio target and responds when the actual ratio falls below the target. Such response can be, for instance:
1. Selling or redeeming other assets, or securitization of illiquid assets,
2. Restricting investment in new loans,
3. Borrowing funds (whether repayable on demand or at a fixed maturity),
4. Issuing additional capital instruments, or
5. Reducing dividends.
Because different funding options have different costs, and differ in reliability, banks maintain a stock of
low cost and reliable sources of liquidity such as:
1. Demand deposits with other banks
2. High quality marketable debt securities
3. Committed lines of credit with other banks
As with reserves, other sources of liquidity are managed with targets.
The ability of the bank to borrow money reliably and economically is crucial, which is why confidence in
the bank's creditworthiness is important to its liquidity. This means that the bank needs to maintain adequate
capitalisation and to effectively control its exposures to risk in order to continue its operations. If creditors
doubt the bank's assets are worth more than its liabilities, all demand creditors have an incentive to demand
payment immediately, causing a bank run to occur.
Contemporary bank management methods for liquidity are based on maturity analysis of all the bank's assets
and liabilities (off balance sheet exposures may also be included). Assets and liabilities are put into residual
contractual maturity buckets such as 'on demand', 'less than 1 month', '2–3 months' etc. These residual
contractual maturities may be adjusted to account for expected counter party behaviour such as early loan
repayments due to borrowers refinancing and expected renewals of term deposits to give forecast cash
flows. This analysis highlights any large future net outflows of cash and enables the bank to respond before
they occur. Scenario analysis may also be conducted, depicting scenarios including stress scenarios such as a
bank-specific crisis.
Hypothetical example of a bank balance sheet and financial ratios
An example of fractional-reserve banking, and the calculation of the "reserve ratio" is shown in the balance
sheet below:
Example 2: ANZ National Bank Limited Balance Sheet as of 30 September 2037
Assets NZ$m Liabilities NZ$m
Cash 201 Demand deposits 25,482
Balance with Central Bank 2,809 Term deposits and other borrowings 35,231
Other liquid assets 1,797 Due to other financial institutions 3,170
Due from other financial institutions 3,563 Derivative financial instruments 4,924
Trading securities 1,887 Payables and other liabilities 1,351
Derivative financial instruments 4,771 Provisions 165
Available for sale assets 48 Bonds and notes 14,607
Net loans and advances 87,878 Related party funding 2,775
Shares in controlled entities 206 [Subordinated] Loan capital 2,062
Current tax assets 112 Total Liabilities 99,084
Other assets 1,045 Share capital 5,943
Deferred tax assets 11 [Revaluation] Reserves 83
Premises and equipment 232 Retained profits 2,667
Goodwill and other intangibles 3,297 Total Equity 8,703
Total Assets 107,787 Total Liabilities plus Net Worth 107,787
In this example the cash reserves held by the bank is NZ$3,010m (NZ$201m Cash + NZ$2,809m Balance at
Central Bank) and the Demand Deposits (liabilities) of the bank are NZ$25,482m, for a cash reserve ratio of
11.81%.
Other financial ratios
The key financial ratio used to analyze fractional-reserve banks is the cash reserve ratio, which is the ratio of
cash reserves to demand deposits. However, other important financial ratios are also used to analyze the
bank's liquidity, financial strength, profitability etc.
For example, the ANZ National Bank Limited balance sheet above gives the following financial ratios:
1. The cash reserve ratio is $3,010m/$25,482m, i.e. 11.81%.
2. The liquid assets reserve ratio is ($201m + $2,809m + $1,797m)/$25,482m, i.e. 18.86%.
3. The equity capital ratio is $8,703m/107,787m, i.e. 8.07%.
4. The tangible equity ratio is ($8,703m − $3,297m)/107,787m, i.e. 5.02%
5. The total capital ratio is ($8,703m + $2,062m)/$107,787m, i.e. 9.99%.
It is important how the term 'reserves' is defined for calculating the reserve ratio, as different definitions give
different results. Other important financial ratios may require analysis of disclosures in other parts of the
bank's financial statements. In particular, for liquidity risk, disclosures are incorporated into a note to the
financial statements that provides maturity analysis of the bank's assets and liabilities and an explanation of
how the bank manages its liquidity.
Criticisms of textbook descriptions of the monetary system
Glenn Stevens, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, said of the "money multiplier", "most
practitioners find it to be a pretty unsatisfactory description of how the monetary and credit system actually
works."[28]
Lord Turner, formerly the UK's chief financial regulator, said "Banks do not, as too many textbooks still
suggest, take deposits of existing money from savers and lend it out to borrowers: they create credit and
money ex nihilo – extending a loan to the borrower and simultaneously crediting the borrower’s money
account".[29]
Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada William White said "Some decades ago, the academic
literature would have emphasised the importance of the reserves supplied by the central bank to the banking
system, and the implications (via the money multiplier) for the growth of money and credit. Today, it is
more broadly understood that no industrial country conducts policy in this way under normal
circumstances." [30]
Criticisms
Criticisms on the basis of instability
In 1935, economist Irving Fisher proposed a system of 100% reserve banking as a means of reversing the
deflation of the Great Depression. He wrote: "100 per cent banking ... would give the Federal Reserve
absolute control over the money supply. Recall that under the present fractional-reserve system of depository
institutions, the money supply is determined in the short run by such non-policy variables as the
currency/deposit ratio of the public and the excess reserve ratio of depository institutions."[31]
Today, monetary reformers argue that fractional reserve banking leads to unpayable debt, growing
inequality, inevitable bankruptcies, and an imperative for perpetual and unsustainable economic growth.[32]
Criticisms on the basis of legitimacy
Austrian School economists such as Jesús Huerta de Soto and Murray Rothbard have also strongly criticized
fractional-reserve banking, calling for it to be outlawed and criminalized. According to them, not only does
money creation cause macroeconomic instability (based on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory), but it is a
form of embezzlement or financial fraud, legalized only due to the influence of powerful rich bankers on
corrupt governments around the world.[33][34] US Politician Ron Paul has also criticized fractional reserve
banking based on Austrian School arguments.[35]
See also
Asset liability management
Austrian business cycle theory
Basel II
Basel III
Chicago plan
The Chicago Plan Revisited
Credit theory of money
Endogenous money
Full-reserve banking
Monetary reform
Positive Money
Notes
1. For an example, see Nationalisation of Northern Rock#Run on the bank
References
1. Frederic S. Mishkin, Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 10th Edition.
Prentice Hall 2012
2. Abel, Andrew; Bernanke, Ben (2005). "14". Macroeconomics (5th ed.). Pearson. pp. 522–532.
3. Mankiw, N. Gregory (2002). "18". Macroeconomics (5th ed.). Worth. pp. 482–489.
4. Hubbard and Obrien. Economics. Chapter 25: Monetary Policy, p. 943.
5. Carl Menger (1950) Principles of Economics (https://mises.org/Books/Mengerprinciples.pdf),
Free Press, Glencoe, IL OCLC 168839 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/168839)
6. United States. Congress. House. Banking and Currency Committee. (1964). Money facts; 169
questions and answers on money – a supplement to A Primer on Money, with index,
Subcommittee on Domestic Finance ... 1964 (http://www.baldwinlivingtrust.com/pdfs/AllAboutM
oney.pdf) (PDF). Washington D.C.
7. Charles P. Kindleberger, A Financial History of Western Europe. Routledge 2007
8. The Federal Reserve in Plain English (http://www.stls.frb.org:80/publications/pleng/PDF/PlainE
nglish.pdf) – An easy-to-read guide to the structure and functions of the Federal Reserve
System (See page 5 of the document for the purposes and functions)
9. Abel, Andrew; Bernanke, Ben (2005). "7". Macroeconomics (5th ed.). Pearson. pp. 266–269.
10. Maturity Transformation (http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/03/the-maturity-transformation-an
d-liquidity-transformation-and-safety-transformation-industtry.html) Brad DeLong
11. Page 57 of 'The FED today', a publication on an educational site affiliated with the Federal
Reserve Bank of Kansas City, designed to educate people on the history and purpose of the
United States Federal Reserve system. The FED today Lesson 6 (http://www.philadelphiafed.o
rg/publications/economic-education/fed-today/fed-today_lesson-6.pdf)
12. "Mervyn King, Finance: A Return from Risk" (http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/spe
eches/2009/speech381.pdf) (PDF). Bank of England. "Banks are dangerous institutions. They
borrow short and lend long. They create liabilities which promise to be liquid and hold few
liquid assets themselves. That though is hugely valuable for the rest of the economy.
Household savings can be channelled to finance illiquid investment projects while providing
access to liquidity for those savers who may need it.... If a large number of depositors want
liquidity at the same time, banks are forced into early liquidation of assets – lowering their
value ...'"
13. Mankiw, N. Gregory (2002). "9". Macroeconomics (5th ed.). Worth. pp. 238–255.
14. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Modern Money Mechanics, pp. 3–13 (May 1961), reprinted
in Money and Banking: Theory, Analysis, and Policy, p. 59, ed. by S. Mittra (Random House,
New York 1970).
15. Eric N. Compton, Principles of Banking, p. 150, American Bankers Ass'n (1979).
16. Paul M. Horvitz, Monetary Policy and the Financial System, pp. 56–57, Prentice-Hall, 3rd ed.
(1974).
17. See, generally, Industry Audit Guide: Audits of Banks, p. 56, Banking Committee, American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants (1983).
18. Federal Reserve Board, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary
Base" (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Current/) (Updated weekly).
19. Bank for International Settlements – The Role of Central Bank Money in Payment Systems.
See page 9, titled, "The coexistence of central and commercial bank monies: multiple issuers,
one currency": [1] (http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss55.pdf) A quick quotation in reference to the 2
different types of money is listed on page 3. It is the first sentence of the document:
"Contemporary monetary systems are based on the mutually reinforcing roles of central
bank money and commercial bank monies."
20. European Central Bank – Domestic payments in Euroland (http://www.ecb.int/press/key/date/2
000/html/sp001109_2.en.html): commercial and central bank money: One quotation from the
article referencing the two types of money:
"At the beginning of the 20th almost the totality of retail payments were made in central
bank money. Over time, this monopoly came to be shared with commercial banks, when
deposits and their transfer via cheques and giros became widely accepted. Banknotes
and commercial bank money became fully interchangeable payment media that
customers could use according to their needs. While transaction costs in commercial
bank money were shrinking, cashless payment instruments became increasingly used, at
the expense of banknotes"
21. Macmillan report 1931 (https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=EkUTaZofJYEC&dq=British
+Parliamentary+reports+on+international+finance&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=kHx
ssmPNow&sig=UyopnsiJSHwk152davCIyQAMVdw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=res
ult#PPA34,M1) account of how fractional banking works
22. Werner, Richard (2014). "Can banks individually create money out of nothing? — The theories
and the empirical evidence" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2014.07.015). International Review of
Financial Analysis. 36: 1–19 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
23. "Managing the central bank's balance sheet: where monetary policy meets financial stability"
(http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarterlybulletin/qb040306.pdf)
(PDF). Bank of England.
24. McGraw Hill Higher Education (http://www.mhhe.com/economics/mcconnell15e/graphics/mcco
nnell15eco/common/dothemath/moneymultiplier.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0071205005513/http://www.mhhe.com/economics/mcconnell15e/graphics/mcconnell15eco/co
mmon/dothemath/moneymultiplier.html) 5 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
25. William MacEachern (2014) Macroeconomics: A Contemporary Introduction (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=I-49pxHxMh8C&pg=PA303&dq=deposit+reserves&lr=&sig=hMQtESrWP6IB
RYiiaZgKwIoDWVk#PPA295,M1), p. 295, University of Connecticut, ISBN 978-1-13318-923-7
26. The Federal Reserve – Purposes and Functions (https://www.federalreserve.gov/pf/pf.htmebo
ok) (See pages 13 and 14 of the pdf version for information on government regulations and
supervision over banks)
27. Reserve Bank of India – Report on Currency and Finance 2004–05 (http://www.rbi.org.in/script
s/AnnualPublications.aspx?head=Report%20on%20Currency%20and%20Finance&fromdate=
03/17/06&todate=03/19/06) (See page 71 of the full report or just download the section
Functional Evolution of Central Banking): The monopoly power to issue currency is delegated
to a central bank in full or sometimes in part. The practice regarding the currency issue is
governed more by convention than by any particular theory. It is well known that the basic
concept of currency evolved in order to facilitate exchange. The primitive currency note was in
reality a promissory note to pay back to its bearer the original precious metals. With greater
acceptability of these promissory notes, these began to move across the country and the
banks that issued the promissory notes soon learnt that they could issue more receipts than
the gold reserves held by them. This led to the evolution of the fractional-reserve system. It
also led to repeated bank failures and brought forth the need to have an independent authority
to act as lender-of-the-last-resort. Even after the emergence of central banks, the concerned
governments continued to decide asset backing for issue of coins and notes. The asset
backing took various forms including gold coins, bullion, foreign exchange reserves and
foreign securities. With the emergence of a fractional-reserve system, this reserve backing
(gold, currency assets, etc.) came down to a fraction of total currency put in circulation.
28. Stevens, Glen. "The Australian Economy: Then and Now" (http://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/20
08/sp-gov-150508.html). Reserve Bank of Australia.
29. Turner, Adair. "Credit Money and Leverage, what Wicksell, Hayek and Fisher knew and
modern macroeconomics forgot" (https://cdn.evbuc.com/eventlogos/67785745/turner.pdf)
(PDF).
30. White, William. "Changing views on how best to conduct monetary policy: the last fifty years"
(http://www.bis.org/speeches/sp011214.htm). Bank for International Settlements.
31. Fisher, Irving (1997). 100% Money. Pickering & Chatto Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85196-236-5.
32. Jackson, Andrew; Dyson, Ben (2012). Modernizing Money. Why our Monetary System is
Broken and how it can be Fixed. Positive Money. ISBN 978-0-9574448-0-5.
33. Rothbard, Murray (1983). The Mystery of Banking. ISBN 9780943940045.
34. Jesús Huerta de Soto (2012). Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles (https://www.mises.o
rg/store/Money-Bank-Credit-and-Economic-Cycles-P290C0.aspx) (3d ed.). Auburn, AL:
Ludwig von Mises Institute. p. 881. ISBN 9781610161893. OCLC 807678778 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/oclc/807678778). (with Melinda A. Stroup, translator) Also available as a PDF here (ht
tp://library.freecapitalists.org//books/Jesus%20Huerta%20de%20Soto/Money,%20Bank%20Cr
edit,%20and%20Economic%20Cycles_Vol_4.pdf)
35. Paul, Ron (2009). "2 The Origin and Nature of the Fed" (https://mises.org/daily/3687). End the
Fed. New York: Grand Central Pub. ISBN 978-0-446-54919-6.
Further reading
Crick, W.F. (1927), The genesis of bank deposits, Economica, vol 7, 1927, pp 191–202.
Friedman, Milton (1960), A Program for Monetary Stability, New York, Fordham University
Press.
Lanchester, John, "The Invention of Money: How the heresies of two bankers became the
basis of our modern economy", The New Yorker, 5 & 12 August 2019, pp. 28–31.
Meigs, A.J. (1962), Free reserves and the money supply, Chicago, University of Chicago,
1962.
Philips, C.A. (1921), Bank Credit, New York, Macmillan, chapters 1–4, 1921,
Thomson, P. (1956), Variations on a theme by Philips, American Economic Review vol 46,
December 1956, pp. 965–970.
External links
Money creation in the modern economy (http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/docume
nts/quarterlybulletin/2014/qb14q1prereleasemoneycreation.pdf) Bank of England
Regulation D of the Federal Reserve Board of the U.S. (http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveEC
FR?gp=&SID=fdc5c4af6a2bf9cdef6edbf498a643a7&n=12y2.0.1.1.5&r=PART&ty=HTML#12:2.
0.1.1.5.0.2.6)
Bank for International Settlements – The Role of Central Bank Money in Payment Systems (htt
p://www.bis.org/publ/cpss55.pdf)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fractional-reserve_banking&oldid=967831192"
This page was last edited on 15 July 2020, at 15:40 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
