Banking

A bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services, including issuing money in form of coins, banknotes or debit cards, receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions. A commercial bank accepts deposits from customers and in turn makes loans based on those deposits. Some banks (called Banks of issue) issue banknotes as legal tender. Many banks offer ancillary financial services to make additional profit; for example: selling insurance products, investment products or stock broking.

Currently in most jurisdictions commercial banks are regulated and require permission to operate. Operational authority is granted by bank regulatory authorities and provide rights to conduct the most fundamental banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. A commercial bank is usually defined as an institution that both accepts deposits and makes loans; there are also financial institutions that provide selected banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank (see banking institutions).

Banks have a long history, and have influenced economies and politics for centuries. In history, the primary purpose of a bank was to provide liquidity to trading companies. Banks advanced funds to allow businesses to purchase inventory, and collected those funds back with interest when the goods were sold. For centuries, the banking industry only dealt with businesses, not consumers. Commercial lending today is a very intense activity, with banks carefully analysing the financial condition of its business clients to determine the level of risk in each loan transaction. Banking services have expanded to include services directed at individuals and risk in these much smaller transactions are pooled.

A bank generates a profit from the differential between what level of interest it pays for deposits and other sources of funds, and what level of interest it charges in its lending activities. This difference is referred to as the spread between the cost of funds and the loan interest rate. Historically, profitability from lending activities has been cyclic and dependent on the needs and strengths of loan customers. In recent history, investors have demanded a more stable revenue stream and banks have therefore placed more emphasis on transaction fees, primarily loan fees but also including service charges on array of deposit activities and ancillary services (international banking, foreign exchange, insurance, investments, wire transfers, etc.). However, lending activities still provide the bulk of a commercial bank's income.

The name bank derives from the Italian word banco, desk, used during the Renaissance by Florentines bankers, who used to make their transactions above a desk covered by a green tablecloth.

Cord blood bank

A cord blood bank is a place that stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed since the mid to late 1990s in response to the success of cord blood transplants in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems, such as Fanconi's anemia and leukemia. Cord blood, once seen as waste to be discarded after a birth, is now viewed as a precious resource. Since the first successful cord blood transplant was performed on a child with Fanconi's anemia in 1988, over 3,500 patients have been treated with this procedure, including 14 who used their own blood cells. In 2004, 600 of those transplants took place in the United States. Following the 1988 transplant, the National Institute of Health awarded a Grant to cord blood pioneer, Dr. Pablo Rubinstein, to begin the first National Cord Blood banking Program (NYCP) at the New York Blood Center, for public placental blood storage and research.

Cord blood contains hematopoietic stem cells, progenitor cells that can form red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Cord blood stem cells are not embryonic stem cells, a pluripotent stem cell, which theoretically can develop into any type of human cell. The range of therapies using cord blood cells is currently limited to treating diseases of the blood and immune systems.

Public banks accept donations to be used for anyone in need. However, there are very strict regulations that public banks need to follow in order to enable the donated units to be added to a registry. Generally an expectant mother interested in donation should contact the bank before the 34th week of pregnancy. The National Marrow Donor Program has a list of public cord blood banks on their website. Once the blood is donated, it loses all identifying information after a short period of initial testing, so that families will not be able to retrieve their blood later.

Private banking allows families to preserve their blood for their own use. For-profit private banks charge a fee of around $2000 to preserve a newborn's cord blood for possible use by the family later.

Public cord blood banking is strongly supported by the medical community, but private cord blood banking is generally not recommended unless there is a family history of specific genetic diseases.[citation needed] Public and private banks offer free programs to store the cord blood of babies whose family members have a condition which can be treated with the blood cells.