THE ECONOMICS OF MONEY,BANKING, AND FINANCIAL MARKETS 350

318 PA R T I V The Management of Financial Institutions business with banks that hold their securities Provincial and municipal government and other securities are less marketable (hence less liquid) and are also riskier than government of Canada securities, primarily because of default risk: there is some possibility that the issuer of the securities may not be able to make its interest payments or pay back the face value of the securities when they mature Banks make their profits primarily by issuing loans In Table 13-1, some 50% of bank assets are in the form of loans, and in recent years they have generally produced more than half of bank revenues A loan is a liability for the individual or corporation receiving it but an asset for a bank because it provides income to the bank Loans are typically less liquid than other assets because they cannot be turned into cash until the loan matures If the bank makes a one-year loan, for example, it cannot get its funds back until the loan comes due in one year Loans also have a higher probability of default than other assets Because of the lack of liquidity and higher default risk, the bank earns its highest return on loans As you can see in Table 13-1, the largest categories of loans for banks are nonmortgage loans (commercial and industrial loans made to businesses, consumer loans, and interbank loans) and mortgages The balance sheet in Table 13-1 shows that non-mortgage loans exceed mortgage loans (33% versus 18% of bank assets) This is so because a larger portion of the foreign activities of Canadian banks is in corporate loans rather than mortgages In fact, the major difference in the balance sheets of the various depository institutions is primarily the type of loan they specialize in Trust and mortgage loan companies and credit unions and caisses populaires, for example, specialize in residential mortgages LOANS Bankers acceptances and the physical capital (bank buildings, computers, and other equipment) owned by the banks are included in this category OTHER ASSETS BASI C BAN KIN G Before proceeding to a more detailed study of how a bank manages its assets and liabilities in order to make the highest profit, you should understand the basic operation of a bank In general terms, banks make profits by selling liabilities with one set of characteristics (a particular combination of liquidity, risk, size, and return) and using the proceeds to buy assets with a different set of characteristics This process is often referred to as asset transformation For example, a savings deposit held by one person can provide the funds that enable the bank to make a mortgage loan to another person The bank has, in effect, transformed the savings deposit (an asset held by the depositor) into a mortgage loan (an asset held by the bank) Another way this process of asset transformation is described is to say that the bank borrows short and lends long because it makes long-term loans and funds them by issuing short-dated deposits The process of transforming assets and providing a set of services (cheque clearing, record keeping, credit analysis, and so forth) is like any other production process in a firm If the bank produces desirable services at low cost and earns substantial income on its assets, it earns profits; if not, the bank suffers losses To make our analysis of the operation of a bank more concrete, we use a tool called a T-account In this case we will use it like a simplified balance sheet, with lines in the form of a T, which lists only the changes that occur in balance sheet items starting from some initial balance sheet position