This chapter focuses on the customer and the services which banks offer to customers. It begins by filling in some of the details about the customers of banks and modern banking services. In this context it gives attention to how the relationship between banks and their customers may be characterized as a matter of law. Contract emerges from this as the overarching feature of the relationship; thus, the second and third sections of the chapter discuss banking contracts and their regulation. The final section turns to a specific banking service, the taking of deposits. Historically this has been the core banking service, and deposit-taking has been central to any definition of banking.
Chapter
Ross Cranston, Emilios Avgouleas, Kristin van Zweiten, Theodor van Sante, and Christoper Hare
Book
Sir Ross Cranston, Emilios Avgouleas, Kristin van Zwieten, Christopher Hare, and Theodor van Sante
Principles of Banking Law provides an authoritative take on banking and services law, with coverage of global banking regulation, payment systems, capital markets, and trade finance. The text takes an international perspective, helping locate domestic banking law and financial law in its wider context. It takes a themed, policy-oriented approach to the subject. The text is composed of four parts. The first part looks at banks and bank regulation. Part II considers banks and customers. Part III examines payment and payment systems. The final part looks at banks and finance.
Chapter
Ross Cranston, Emilios Avgouleas, Kristin van Zweiten, Theodor van Sante, and Christoper Hare
This chapter discusses banking supervision in practice. It focuses on two jurisdictions: the UK and the European Banking Union (EBU), and considers in particular the type of powers enjoyed by the UK and EBU regulators, and the way they exercise them in their supervisory approaches. In the process the chapter highlights loopholes in the respective regimes and to some extent evaluates their effectiveness. On 1 April 2013 the Financial Services Act 2012 came into force, removing the Financial Services Authority and delivering a new regulatory structure for the UK, which comprises the Prudential Regulation Authority responsible for microprudential regulation and supervision of banks, building societies, and investment firms; and the Financial Conduct Authority, in addition to a financial stability (macroprudential) body within the Bank of England, the Financial Policy Committee. The EBU brought about the centralization of bank supervision and resolution within the Eurozone. The trigger for the establishment of the EBU was the Eurozone debt crisis.
Chapter
Iris Chiu and Joanna Wilson
This chapter examines payment methods, which refer to the mechanisms, procedures, and organisations that are used to enable parties to discharge their payment obligations. While there are a vast range of different payment mechanisms, the most common methods are cheques, payment cards, and the electronic transfer of funds. A cheque is a written order from an account holder instructing their bank to pay a specified sum of money to one or more named beneficiaries. Meanwhile, payment cards—small pieces of plastic that are used in financial transactions—have revolutionised the way that people pay for goods or services. Lastly, the transfer of funds refers to the movement of a credit balance from one account to another, which occurs by adjusting the balances of the respective party’s accounts. The chapter then looks at recent innovations in the payment services industry relating to open banking and third-party providers.
