Demand deposit
funds held in demand deposit accounts
Demand deposits or checkbook money are funds held in demand accounts in commercial banks. These account balances are usually considered money and form the greater part of the narrowly defined money supply of a country. Simply put, these are deposits in the bank that can be withdrawn on demand, without any prior notice.
History
In the United States, demand deposits arose following the 1865 tax of 10% on the issuance of state bank notes; see history of banking in the U.S.
In the U.S., demand deposits only refer to funds held in checking accounts (or cheque offering accounts) other than NOW accounts; however, in a 1970s and 1980s response to the 1933 promulgation of Regulation Q in the U.S., demand deposits in some cases came to allow easier access to funds from other types of accounts (e.g. savings accounts and money market accounts). For the historical basis of the distinction between demand deposits and NOW accounts in the U.S., see Negotiable order of withdrawal account.
Money supply
Demand deposits are usually considered part of the narrowly defined money supply, as they can be used, via checks and drafts, as a means of payment for goods and services and to settle debts. The money supply of a country is usually defined to consist of currency plus demand deposits. In most countries, demand deposits account for a majority of the money supply. The majority of demand deposits arise from bank lending.
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This entry incorporates text from “Demand deposit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.