In a commercial community banks possess a large sphere of usefulness. Their utility has been well described as six-fold: First, they furnish a safe repository for money;second, they encourage thrift by the payment of interest on deposits;third, they render useful service to all engaged in production, transportation and exchange of commodities; fourth, they also render useful service to their customers by furnishing exchange and otherwise arranging for the transmission of money; fifth, the check system affords a useful record of individual expenditures; sixth, by collecting money in a large aggregate, they render it more effective for purposes of trade and enterprise.

But this list does not include all of the particulars in which banks benefit the business community. As we shall presently see, they afford a convenient and valuable means for the interchange of information affecting credit; they are useful to business men of probity as references;they keep the community supplied with convenient "change"; in many places they afford the only means of safe deposit for valuables;and last, but by no means least, they exert a tremendous moral force in behalf of honesty, truthfulness, industry, perseverance, thrift, prudence and punctuality.