Categories Of Bank Customer – The customers that a bank relates to falls into two broad categories, the personal customers and business customers.
Categories Of Bank Customer And Their Functions
Personal customers are individuals who open accounts for personal use and these accounts are usually in their personal names, or in the name of two or more persons. They deposit their personal money into it and withdraw from it to make their day to day expenses.
The idea is to operate an account distinct from a formal body, making the account a more of an individual account. Every activity on the said account will have to be covered by the persons day to day life.
Such personal customers includes private or sole account holders, other categories of bank customers includes joint account holders , minor and married women that operate separate accounts. These personal customers have one thing in common, they do not use their account for business. We will therefore, discuss them as one group.
Business and corporate customers on the hand are businessmen and women (sole traders), firms, partnerships, companies and other organisations that open accounts in their business names. The account is used to keep deposits for businesses and withdrawals made from them are also for business purposes. Such accounts are not meant for personal money hence the name it came with, Business and corporate customer..
The nature of their business differs according to their own categories of bank customers which in some or most cases are clearly spelt out on the terms and conditions or agreement. We shall therefore treat each category as a separate group. There are also some organisations that are not profit oriented who are not personal customers. We shall treat them along with business customers.
From the two broad categories of bank customers, we shall identify and discuss all the possible group of customers, below are potential groups we shall discuss on this article and subsequent articles.
- Personal customers
- Sole traders
- Partnership and firms
- Limited Liability companies
- Public Liability; state and local government, and government corporation
- Associations, clubs, churches and other customers
The Personal Customer And Accounts – Personal customer are that categories of bank customers who operate personal account as was earlier explained on this post. The customer opens the account in order to take care of their personal money and other activities.
In terms of numbers, this is the largest group of customers that banks relates with on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. However, they are the easiest group of bank customers for the bank to handle. Some members of this group operate a deposit accounts while some of them operate a current account.
These accounts only demand serious attention when they are overdrawn through the overdraft facility or when loans are granted to the holders. This however, does not by any means imply that personal customers are to be handled carelessly.
In dealing with personal customers and their accounts a few things needs to be considered by the banker. Failure to consider their various features can have some legal consequences. Some of these important factors are discussed in our other updates on the categories of bank customers.
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