Their role in facilitating trade Commercial banks are – financial institutions that primarily intermediate between the savers and the borrowers in an economy. They also buy and sell foreign currencies and facilitate trade and the transfer of payments both domestically and across international borders.
It is these very transactions that help to pay for our salaries, the importation of goods and services that we use almost every day, and provide the much needed capital for investment. At the end of 2010, the total loan book value of all banks stood at $ and this has grown by 159% over the last 10 years.