retail deposits

The "good" bank will hold all of Northern Rock's retail deposits and a proportion of its lower-risk mortgage loans.

Savers may initially be shielded from the full impact of those reductions, because commercial banks are competing for retail deposits.

Of course, some of the Wall Street banks, such as Goldman Sachs, are not in the business of taking retail deposits.

No longer were commercial banks dependent on the slow, costly business of attracting retail deposits.

With few retail deposits to speak of, the firm gorged on long-term debt and commercial paper to fund its lending.

Whenever a South Korean bank wants to expand its loan book faster than its retail deposits, it relies on foreign borrowing to fill the gap.

Since retail deposits don't grow so fast, other sources of funding are tapped to feed ballooning balance sheets.

In the Czech Republic, for instance, it holds almost a third of all retail deposits, and in Romania it has a quarter.

Retail deposits are explicitly insured, but at premiums that imply a taxpayer subsidy.

Its banking system is also relatively insulated from turmoil in bond markets, with more than 90% of loans funded by retail deposits.

Those banks can rely on huge balance sheets, backed by cheap retail deposits, to make loans.

Though ING's massive retail deposits are a source of strength, ING hasn't been immune to the credit problems.

The combined group accounts for 24% of retail deposits and 27% of retail mortgages in Britain.

Virgin, for its part, has bought a bank with 1m customers, 75 branches and retail deposits that comfortably exceed the value of loans.

Sberbank, the biggest, holds 58% of all retail deposits.