Banker: The expression Banking in the simple sense means carrying on business with money. The term Bank denotes any person or firm or company, which transacts banking business. A bank is an institution which deals with money and credit. It accepts deposits from the public, makes the funds available to those who need them, and helps in the remittance of money from one place to another.
There is no satisfactory definition, since it is very difficult to define the term Banking or Banker. However, many attempts were made to define the term. Following are some of the prominent definitions :
Ingredients or constituents of the definition :
This definition covers the most important functions viz. the borrowing (acceptance of deposits of money from the public) and lending (sanction/payment of loans and advances to the public viz. individuals, traders, industrialists etc.) and hence it is regarded workable and is accepted.
Customer: The expression ‘Customer’ in the simple sense means, one who transacts himself with the bank subject to certain terms and conditions as imposed by the Banker. In other words, a person, who maintains an account with the bank may be regarded as customer.
The term ‘customer of a bank’ has not been defined in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 or any other Act. By the term it is generally understood or mean an account holder of bank. But this general understanding of the term has been qualified by banking experts and judgements of law courts. Hence, there is no satisfactory definition for the term ‘customer’. However, some attempts were made to define the term ‘customer’ as stated below: -
The Kerala High Court in Central Bank of India Ltd. Bombay vs Gopinathan Nair & others1) has laid down : “Broadly speaking, a customer is a person who has the habit of resorting to the same place or person to do business. So far as banking transactions are concerned he is a person whose money has been accepted on the footing that the banker will honour upto the amount standing to his credit, irrespective of his connection being of short or long standing”.
In this very sense the statement in the question has been made that “to constitute a customer there must be some recognizable course or habit of dealing in the nature a regular banking business”.
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