A Bank account is a financial account recording the financial transactions between the customer and the bank and the resulting financial position of the customer with the bank .

Account types

Bank accounts may have a positive, or credit

Debits and credits

Debit and credit are the two aspects of every financial transaction. Their use and implication is the fundamental concept in the double-entry bookkeeping system, in which every debit transaction must have a corresponding credit transaction and vice versa.Debits and credits are a system of notation...

balance, where the bank owes money to the customer; or a negative, or debit

Debits and credits

Debit and credit are the two aspects of every financial transaction. Their use and implication is the fundamental concept in the double-entry bookkeeping system, in which every debit transaction must have a corresponding credit transaction and vice versa.Debits and credits are a system of notation...

balance, where the customer owes the bank money.

Broadly, accounts opened with the purpose of holding credit balances are referred to as deposit account

Deposit account

A deposit account is a current account, savings account, or other type of bank account, at a banking institution that allows money to be deposited and withdrawn by the account holder. These transactions are recorded on the bank's books, and the resulting balance is recorded as a liability for the...

s; whilst accounts opened with the purpose of holding debit balances are referred to as loan accounts.

Some accounts are defined by their function rather than nature of the balance they hold. Bank accounts designed to process large numbers of transactions may offer credit and debit facilities and therefore do not sit easily with a polarised definition.

Other account types

• Automatic transfer service account
  Automatic transfer service account
  An automatic transfer service account is a deposit account that allows the transfer of funds from a savings account to a checking account in order to cover a check written or to maintain a minimum balance....
  
  
• Individual Savings Account
  Individual Savings Account
  An Individual Savings Account is a financial product available to residents in the United Kingdom. It is designed for the purpose of investment and savings with a favourable tax status. Money is contributed from after tax income and not subjected to income tax or capital gains tax within a holding...
  
  
• Joint account
  Joint account
  Joint account is a bank account shared by two or more individuals. Any individual who is a member of the joint account can withdraw from the account and deposit to it. Usually, joint accounts are shared between close relatives or business partners....
  
  
• Low-cost account
  Low-cost account
  A low-cost account is a Canadian bank account that costs $4 or less per month. In February 2001, an agreement was reached with the Canadian federal government, which involved eight of Canada's major banks offering low-cost accounts to consumers, ensuring that every person has affordable banking...
  
  
• Money market account

• Numbered bank account
  Numbered bank account
  A numbered bank account is a type of bank account where the name of the account holder is kept secret, and he identifies himself to the bank by means of a code word known only by the account holder and a restricted number of bank employees, thus providing the holder with a degree of bank privacy in...
  
  
• Negotiable Order of Withdrawal account
  Negotiable Order of Withdrawal account
  In the United States, a Negotiable Order of Withdrawal account is a deposit account that pays interest, on which checks may be written....
  
  
• Nostro and vostro accounts
• Overdraft Free Account
• Personal account
  Personal account
  A personal account is an account for use by an individual for that person's own needs. It is a relative term to differentiate them from those accounts for corporate or business use...
  
  

• Savings account (Thrift or Non-transactional account)
• Time deposit
  Time deposit
  A time deposit is a money deposit at a banking institution that cannot be withdrawn for a certain "term" or period of time...
  
   / certificate of deposit
  Certificate of deposit
  A certificate of Deposit is a time deposit, a financial product commonly offered to consumers in the United States by banks, thrift institutions, and credit unions....
  
  
• Transactional account
• Tax-Exempt Special Savings Account
  Tax-Exempt Special Savings Account
  In the UK, the Tax-Exempt Special Savings Account was one of a number of tax-free savings accounts. The TESSA was announced by John Major in his only Budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1990...
  
  
• Transaction deposit
  Transaction deposit
  In the United States, transactions deposit is a term used by the Federal Reserve for checkable deposits and other accounts that can be used directly as cash without withdrawal limits or restrictions. They are the only bank deposits that require the bank to keep reserves at the central bank...
  
  

• No Frill Account
• Senior Citizen Account

Canada

The Government of Canada maintains a database of the fees and features of bank account packages offered by various financial institutions operating in Canada. The information is periodically incorporated in comparative tables and published in booklet form. The tables are also published in PDF form on the website of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is an independent government agency of the Government of Canada. FCAC provides consumer information and oversees financial institutions to ensure that they comply with federal consumer protection measures. Created in 2001, the Agency investigates cases of...

. The database also feeds into an interactive online tool, that allows consumers to compare various bank-account packages online.

See also

• Bank card number
  Bank card number
  A bank card number is the primary account number found on credit cards and bank cards. It has a certain amount of internal structure and shares a common numbering scheme. Credit card numbers are a special case of ISO/IEC 7812 bank card numbers....
  
  
• Banking in Switzerland
  Banking in Switzerland
  All banks in Switzerland are regulated by Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority , which derives its authority from a series of federal statutes...
  
  
• Bank secrecy
  Bank secrecy
  Bank secrecy is a legal principle in some jurisdictions under which banks are not allowed to provide to authorities personal and account information about their customers unless certain conditions apply...
  
  
• Bank statement
  Bank statement
  An account statement or a bank statement is a summary of all financial transactions occurring over a given period of time on a deposit account, a credit card, or any other type of account offered by a financial institution....
  
  
• Chart of accounts
  Chart of accounts
  __FORCETOC__A chart of accounts is a created list of the accounts used by a business entity to define each class of items for which money or the equivalent is spent or received...
  
  
• Financial privacy
  Financial privacy
  Financial Privacy is a blanket term for a multitude of privacy issues:*Financial Institutions ensuring that their customers information remains private to those outside the institution. Issues include the Patriot Act, and other debates of privacy vs...
  
  
• International Bank Account Number
  International Bank Account Number
  The International Bank Account Number is an international standard for identifying bank accounts across national borders with a minimal risk of propagating transcription errors. It was originally adopted by the European Committee for Banking Standards , and was later adopted as an international...
  
  
• Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
  Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
  The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication operates a worldwide financial messaging network which exchanges messages between banks and other financial institutions...
  
  
• International Organization for Standardization
  International Organization for Standardization
  The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
  
  
  • ISO 639
    ISO 639
    ISO 639 is a set of standards by the International Organization for Standardization that is concerned with representation of names for language and language groups....
    
    
  • ISO 3166
    ISO 3166
    ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization . It defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions . The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation...
    
    
  • ISO/IEC 7064
  • ISO/IEC 7812
  • ISO 9362
    ISO 9362
    ISO 9362 is a standard format of Business Identifier Codes approved by the International Organization for Standardization . It is a unique identification code for both financial and non-financial institutions...
    
    
  • ISO 13616
  • ISO 15924
    ISO 15924
    ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems . Each script is given both a four-letter code and a numeric one....
    
    
• Money laundering
  Money laundering
  Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
  
  
• Telephone banking
  Telephone banking
  Telephone banking is a service provided by a financial institution, which allows its customers to perform transactions over the telephone.Most telephone banking services use an automated phone answering system with phone keypad response or voice recognition capability...