Do you know you work for the bank?

I think many of us are aware that banks make profit by charging you interest on your borrowings. Those lacking self-control on credit card spending will know exactly what I mean. But do you know how exactly does it work?

Banking operations are highly complex. There are many way a bank can make profit but for today, let us just focus on loans. And as always, let me put it in a very simple manner…

Let’s say there is this bank, called Z-Bank. In this bank, 100 depositors place fixed deposit of $50,000 each, totalling $5m. If Z-Bank just keeps the money, they will have to pay the customers interest which is a cost. Naturally, Z-Bank will take this $5m and lend to others to make profit.

Let’s say the entire $5m is then lent to John to buy a house and John said he will repay the loan in 30 years, which is a common tenure for a home loan. Let’s say John begins to pay mortgages from the first year and the amount paid by him on the first year was $300,000.

For those who have no idea about home loan; the answer is yes, the total amount that you need to repay to the bank after the entire tenure is very likely to be almost double (or more) of the original amount borrowed by you, depending on the interest rate. In this case, John will need to repay $9m in 30 years to Z-Bank. That’s life…

Now, under recognised accounting principle, Z-Bank will need to segregate the $300,000 into principal and interest. Principal refers to the original $5m lent out to John and interest refers to Z-Bank’s income. The exact splitting mechanism is complicated, but I am not exaggerating when I say that the interest portion recognised as income in the $300,000 paid by John could be as high as $250,000, thanks to accounting principle.

From this “income” of $250,000, let’s say Z-Bank pay interest to the 100 depositors and other costs amounting to $150,000. This means there is a profit of $100,000! From this $100,000, the bankers will declare that they make huge profit and pay bonuses.

But wait, let us take a step back…

A total of $5,000,000 was lent out. Only $300,000 was collected. Z-Bank has not even recover 10% of the money lent out, how can it declare that it has made a profit and started paying huge salary and bonuses?

Well my friend, the banks have been doing this for years. And if you seriously think accountants are square, think again! Mind you, if John goes bankrupt and fails to pay the balance $4.7m, it is the govt who guarantees the deposits that will have to pay the money back to the depositors, not those who have taken profits.

Have you ever heard of the saying… “We all work for the bank”? It simply means…

You work and with your salary, you pay your car and home loan, giving profits to the bank. After your spending, you place the balance in the bank as savings, giving more “principal” for the bank to make more profits. And if a bank goes bankrupt, the govt will save the bank by giving bail-out money; using that portion of your salary called… tax.

P/S: Some of you will probably comment… “Zewt, does that mean we shouldn’t place our money in the bank anymore?” My answer will be… This post is to enlighten you on some knowledge of life, not telling you what and what not to do.

1 year ago… 5 things I failed to fathom… A change in dominant language