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📘 A bank holds money you can spend later

When you deposit cash or receive a paycheck transfer, the bank records your balance as a liability on its books — money it owes you on demand or under agreed terms. In return you gain safekeeping, payment services, and often interest on cer

3
lessons
~15 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. Deposits and trustExplain deposits as ledger liabilities and the role of fractional reserves.Your balance is a recorded claim; banks lend part of deposits while managing confidence.
  2. Lending and paymentsTrace loans, payment rails, and short-term interbank liquidity.Loans trade future repayment for present spending power; networks settle transfers between banks.
  3. Oversight and stabilityDescribe capital rules, central-bank policy, and the end-to-end path of a payment.Regulation and lender-of-last-resort tools stabilize ledgers and rails customers rely on daily.

Questions this course answers

What is your deposit balance mainly?

The bank owes you the balance; it is an accounting claim backed by assets and rules.

Why can the same deposited dollar support both spending and lending?

Reserves are partial; lent funds can reappear as deposits elsewhere.

What is capital regulation mainly for?

Capital buffers absorb losses so institutions remain solvent longer.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, The Fed Explained, https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/files/the-fed-explained.pdf
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Deposit Insurance at a Glance, https://www.fdic.gov/resources/deposit-insurance/
  • Bank for International Settlements, Basel Framework, https://www.bis.org/basel_framework/
  • Bank of England, How do banks work?, https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/how-do-banks-work

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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