Bank deposits
The account balance on your bank account is known as a demand deposit. Under our Fractional Reserve Banking (FRB) system, your deposits are used by the banks to leverage lending. What most people think of as their account balance is actually something very different. Many people mistakenly believe that their account balance shows how much they own. This is not so. Instead, it shows what the bank owes you. You merely hold a claim on cash. Knowing this will help you understand that bank deposits are actually loans.
예금은 더이상 보장되지 않습니다.
Your cash forms the foundation for a banking system that loans out (hypothecates) your account balance with the promise that they will keep some of it on hand and return all of it if you ask for it. This is called fractional reserve lending and this is what all banks do.
The legal precedent, that established the foundation for fractional reserve banking, was determined in a UK Supreme Court, (Foley vs. Hill, 1848).
Money, when paid into a bank, ceases altogether to be the money of the principal; it is then the money of the banker, who is bound to an equivalent by paying a similar sum to that deposited with him when he is asked for it. … The money placed in the custody of a banker is, to all intents and purposes, the money of the banker, to do with it as he pleases; he is guilty of no breach of trust in employing it; he is not answerable to the principal if he puts it into jeopardy, if he engages in a hazardous speculation; he is not bound to keep it or deal with it as the property of his principal; but he is, of course, answerable for the amount, because he has contracted, having received that money, to repay to the principal, when demanded, a sum equivalent to that paid into his hands. [Emphasis mine]
In very clear terms, when you deposit funds in a bank account, those funds are no longer yours. You become an unsecured creditor, or lender, to the bank. Interest payments are supposed to compensate you for the risk in lending funds to the bank but today’s interest rates – being close to zero – do not compensate you for that risk.
Bank Runs & Bank Holidays
Fractional reserve banking works as long as people have faith that the bank will give them back ‘their’ money. When things aren’t going well, and when the bank is perceived as having taken too much risk, people start demanding their balances back in cash because their trust in the bank’s ability to give them back ‘their’ money starts to diminish. This is called a ‘bank-run’ and it is what banks fear most.
Assume that all depositors would claim their cash at once. As the reserve ratios are below 10 % for most western banks, less than 10 % of the funds would be available for withdrawals.
Fun fact: A ‘bank holiday’ is when a bank literally closes its doors and blocks account holders from withdrawing their funds.
A bank holiday is often caused by a bank run and is a last resort measure to prevent the bank from going bankrupt, as a major bank run would rapidly deplete the bank of all its funds when set in motion. The most recent example is what happened in Cyprus in 2013. When it became clear to the Cypriot bank account holders that the Cypriot banks had liquidity problems, worried account holders started to transfer their funds to other banks and withdraw their cash.
Cypriot bail-in as a precedent (2013년 키프로스 은행예금 몰수 선례)
Why did the Cypriot bank account holders wish to withdraw their funds in 2013? When the liquidity problems of the banks became apparent and when it furthermore became increasingly clear that no one was going to bail out the Cypriot banks, the account holders acted to try to secure ‘their’ money.
Instead of the banks being bailed out, the banks had to save themselves and recapitalize by confiscating and freezing part of the bank account holdings. The banks argued that this was necessary or the banks would go bankrupt with the effect that all holdings would be lost.
The Cypriot ATM’s were emptied within hours of the bank holiday announcement. Two weeks later, the banks reopened with strict controls on what remained in the accounts. Large withdrawals and transfers were strictly controlled. Up to 85 % of account balances were converted into bank shares irredeemable for years.