Industries · Financial services
Retail and commercial banking
How a bank earns money from the gap between lending and deposit rates and from fees, why costs and bad loans decide its profit, what capital and liquidity mean in plain words, how Islamic banks work, and how to crack bank cases in Europe, the Gulf, India, Singapore, the US and Africa.
Key takeaways
- A bank borrows money cheaply, mostly from depositors, and lends it at a higher interest rate.
- Judge a loan by its return on the capital it uses, after funding cost, running cost, and expected losses.
- Banking looks similar everywhere, but interest rates, regulation, and customer habits differ by country.
- Draw a bank profit tree: net interest income, fees, operating costs, and credit losses
- Explain net interest margin, cost/income ratio, cost of risk, capital, and liquidity in plain words
- Calculate the return on equity of a loan book after risk, cost, tax, and capital
- Describe how Islamic banks finance customers without interest
- Crack the common bank cases: falling profit, branch closures, digital banks, and new loan products
Lessons
How a bank works and makes money
Customers, products, the bank profit tree, capital and liquidity in plain words, and Islamic banking basics.
Bank unit economics: is a loan worth making?
Judge a loan book by its return on equity after interest, costs, credit losses, tax, and capital, and compare branch and digital costs.
Banking: players, trends, regulation, and how to crack the cases
Main players by region, what changed from 2024 to 2026, regulation in general terms, and typical case prompts with the first driver to check.
Worked cases in this module
Look it up
Key terms