One very important institution in our economy is the bank. Banks manage money for individual people,corporations and the government banks provide a number of important services for you and your family. Most importantly, there a safe place to store your money. They also provide an easy way for you to transfer money from one place to another. When you write a personal check, the check authorizes the bank to give your money to the person or business whose name is on the check. Of course, banks also lend money. Ordinary people take out bank loans for a number of reasons, to pay for college, to buy or remodel a home, to start or expand a business, and forth. Banks provide these services to individuals. However, their main function is to lend large sums of money, W example, to corporations. When people or corporations borrow money from a bank, they must, of course, pay interest a percentage of the money they borrowed. Banks pay interest on the money they hold and charge interest Ion the money they lend. For a bank to make a profit, it has to collect more interest than it pays out. Sometimes banks invest money as well as landed to invest. Money means to put it into a corporation or some other project, for example, building a housing complex or doing medical research in exchange for a share of the profits. Most (businesses need loans and investments at some time, and banks are an important source of both.