A user-friendly guide to the nature of retail banking in the modern financial services industry. The book comprehensively explains how banking works, covering subjects such as payment methods, funds transfers, collecting and paying banks and the principles of the banker-customer relationship. It also gives an overview of the legal status of money in its various forms and features a new chapter on insolvency and how its legal implications have affected lending behaviour. The book is based on a text used successfully for several years as part of the Business and Finance degree offered by the University of Loughborough and is a completely revised and rewritten version of the highly successful text, The Business of Banking, which went through many editions.