A commercial bank is a type of financial intermediary and a type of bank. It raises funds by collecting deposits from businesses and consumers via checkable deposits, savings deposits, and time deposits. It makes loans to businesses and consumers. It also buys corporate bonds and government bonds. Its primary liabilities are deposits and primary assets are loans and bonds.
This is what people normally call a "bank". The term "commercial" was used to distinguish it from an investment bank. Since the two genres of banks no longer have to be separate companies, some have used the term "commercial bank" to refer to banks which focus mainly on companies.
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