The Global Banking Sector: Why Do Banks Really Want Our Deposits? - by Ellen Brown

Many authorities have said it: banks do not lend their deposits. They create the money they lend on their books.

Robert B. Anderson, Treasury Secretary under Eisenhower, said it in 1959:

When a bank makes a loan, it simply adds to the borrower’s deposit account in the bank by the amount of the loan. The money is not taken from anyone else’s deposits; it was not previously paid in to the bank by anyone. It’s new money, created by the bank for the use of the borrower.

The Bank of England said it in the spring of 2014, writing in its quarterly bulletin:

The reality of how money is created today differs from the description found in some economics textbooks: Rather than banks receiving deposits when households save and then lending them out, bank lending creates deposits.
. . . Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.

All of which leaves us to wonder: If banks do not lend their depositors’ money, why are they always scrambling to get it? Banks advertise to attract depositors, and they pay interest on the funds. What good are our deposits to the bank?

The answer is that while banks do not need the deposits to create loans, they do need to balance their books; and attracting customer deposits is usually the cheapest way to do it.


Read the complete report: Why Do Banks Really Want Our Deposits? » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Cyprus revises bank levy bill to spare small savers - by Kethevane GORJESTANI

Cypriot government officials proposed Tuesday a change to a plan to raid bank deposits that has caused outrage in the country and sent jitters through European financial markets.

Just hours ahead of an expected vote in the country’s 56-member Parliament on the seizure of a percentage of deposits, officials sought to limit the impact on small savers.

A new draft bill discussed in Parliament’s finance committee proposed to spare all deposits below €20,000 ($25,900) from a charge.

Those between €20,000 and €100,000 would still have a 6.75 percent charge imposed, and those above €100,000 would be hit for 9.9 percent, in line with the original plan put forward at the weekend.

A vote in favor of the bank account confiscation is needed if Cyprus is to get €10 billion in rescue loans from its euro partners and the International Monetary Fund. The seizure of deposits is meant to raise €5.8 billion, which is part of the country’s rescue.

In a sign of the scale of disagreement over the deposit charge, the country’s central bank governor recommended that no accounts below €100,000 be touched. That level represents the amount of savings that are supposed to be insured if a bank collapses.

Banks have been shut until Thursday to prevent a bank run.

Finance Minister Michalis Sarris is to fly to Moscow Tuesday afternoon to meet with his Russian counterpart. About a third of all deposits in Cypriot banks are believed to be held by Russians.

Read more: Cyprus revises bank levy bill to spare small savers - CYPRUS - FRANCE24