As noted above, banking may be conducted by either chartered institutions or unincorporated associations. The latter include the many individuals and partnerships conducting private banks. In the country, the individual private banker is often a business man who has successfully managed a local enterprise. Having thus attained the confidence of the community, he is in a position to receive deposits of funds and make loans to his neighbors.

Private bankers are also found in cities with large colonies of immigrants. These persons are continually remitting funds to their native countries, and occasionally sending steamship tickets to bring their friends and relatives to the new land. The low rates quoted on European currencies have tempted many to buy foreign exchange solely for the purpose of speculation. Such transactions are handled by private individuals who frequently operate a general banking business.

Another type of private bank is the partnership, which includes a powerful group of financiers engaged in both commercial and investment banking on an international scale. One well-known firm with head-quarters in New York has through connections abroad extended large credits for the financing of exports and imports for over a century. Another is an unincorporated association of a large number of partners interested mainly in the field of investment banking. During the war it acted as fiscal agent for foreign governments and floated loans of unprecedented amount. This firm also organizes syndicates to finance industrial enterprises, as in the case of the Great Northern-Northern Pacific railroads, which in 1921 placed on the market securities amounting to $230,000,000.