a) State five services a commercial bank renders to customers.
b) List five duties of a customs authority.
Explanation
a Services rendered by Commercial Banks to Customers:
- Acceptance of deposit: commercial banks accept deposits from customers for safe custody. i.e savings, current and deposits accounts.
- Safekeeping of Valuables: commercial banks keep valuable goods like gold, jewellery, wills, deeds etc on behalf of customers.
- Commercial banks lend money to customers on a long and short term basis.
- Agents of payments: it acts as agents of payment for customers. Commercial banks accept and honour cheques drawn on them.
- Issuance of Travellers’ cheques: commercial banks issue traveller’s cheques to customers who are travelling outside the country.
- Advice to customers: commercial banks advise customers on matters that affect their businesses.
- Solving the problem of foreign Exchange: commercial banks help their customers to get foreign exchange
- They Act as Referee: commercial banks act as referees for their customers when their business partners are in doubt about their financial credibility.
- Discounting Bills of Exchange: commercial banks discount bills of exchange that is, they pay cash for bills of exchange before the bills mature.
- Commercial Banks issue bank statements to customers at regular intervals.
(b) Duties of a Customs Authority
- A Customs Authority collects taxes in terms of imports, exports and excise duties on behalf of the government.
- A Customs Authority enforces import and export restrictions and prohibition by the government.
- A Customs Authority supervises bonded warehouse where goods whose duties have not been paid are kept.
- A Customs Authority collects data for the compilation of a country’s international trade statistics which gives a picture of a country’s balance of trade and payments.
- Provision of quarantine facilities – it provides appropriate quarantine facilities for the importation of live stocks.
- Completion of documents – the Customs ensure that custom declaration forms and other documents are completed.
- Issuance of Clearance Certificates – it issues clearance certificates for goods whose duties have been paid.