THE ECONOMICS OF MONEY,BANKING, AND FINANCIAL MARKETS 350

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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.