THE BANK

THE BANKThe difference between the Bank of England and the Bank of Italy is that the Bank of England is the central bank of the UK. It was founded in 1694 and has many functions: it is banker to the British government and to other banks, it exercises general authority and supervision over the banking and financial system in the UK, it controls the issue of coins and notes in England and in Wales, it fixes exchange rates, it handles the UKs debts, it protects the national gold and silver reserves and it fixes interest rates, while, the Bank of Italy is an institute of right public. It was founded in 1893 as stock companies following the fusion promoted by the government Giolitti among the Bank of the Kingdom, the Bank National Tuscany and the Bank Tuscany of Credit, became in 1926 the only institute of issue of our country. The 1936 banking reform has changed then the juridical form of it doing by law an institute of it public. The Bank of Italy now belongs to the European System of Central Banks and has many functions: the function of economic politics, the function to stimulate the saving and the production, function of services, functions of investment, credit function and monetary function. The savings banks encourage small savers to invest their money. The best known example is the National Savings Bank, run by the UK Government through post offices. It offers the small investors two forms of account:

Ordinary accounts with a low interest rate, which are virtually tax-free;

Investment accounts with a much higher, taxable rate of interest.

Merchant banks, such as Morgan Grenfell, are commercial organisations which not only carry out the main functions of a commercial bank, but they also specialise in providing services to companies. They are particularly active in investments for foreign trade. They started out as export houses for UK products, but gradually specialised in international finance and the acceptance of bills of exchange for international traders. Commercial banks, such as Lloyds, Barclays, National Westminster, and Midland, are also called Joint-stock banks, are owned by shareholders. They specialise in providing banking services to individuals. Commercial banks are clearing banks which mean they are authorised to exchange cheques and other means of payment. They manage their customers accounts by making and receiving payments for them, by keeping their money and by lending them money with interest. The building societies originally, these institutions specialised in loans to people who wished to buy houses, but they are increasingly competing directly with banks and many have become real banks. Examples of building societies are Nationwide and Britannia Generally, they provide loans to people who want to buy or improve their property. The people take out a mortgage from the building society so that their property acts as the security. If the mortgage payments are not met, the building society can sell the property to recover the debt. Bank offer services to the general public as well as to businesses. Banking services to personal customers are:

They receive money from the general public and either hold it in deposit, making it available to the person who has deposited it, or lend it at interest to people who wish to borrow. They regularly send a statement of account to a current account holder, recording all payments into and from his current account for a given period of time.

They exchange money from one currency to another.

They advise customers on the best way of investing their money.

They allow the bank account holders to pay by standing orders and direct debits.

A standing order is used when a person authorises the bank to make regular payments of a fixed amount from his current account, e.g. payments for insurance, mortgage, etc. with a direct debit, money can be taken directly out of a customers current account for payments of varying amounts, e.g. telephone and gas bills, subscriptions, etc.They provide cash cards or switch cards, credit cards, and cheque books.

They lend money through loans, mortgages and overdrafts. An overdraft is a loan made by a bank to a current account holder so he can take out more money than he has in his account up to an agreed maximum. Also, he must pay an interest on the sum received. In addition to the services provided to the general public, banks also offer the following services to companies:

Payments: they arrange for payments for all national and international trade transactions.

Export finance: they can provide exporters with the necessary finance to carry out a large order they may have received from a foreign investor.

Credit finance: banks can intervene to give an exporter credit in advance if, for example, the importer is following a long-term payment scheme, and the exporter cannot wait for the money.

Factoring: with this service the exporter sells all his trade debts to a bank. This arranges for the debts to be collected and for the exporter to be paid. Leasing: instead of buying expensive equipment, property or vehicles, a company can lease (or hire) them through a bank. The bank pays for what the company needs and leases it out to it. The company will arrange for monthly payments over an agreed period. The most evident advantages of leasing are that lease rent is tax deductible, and that a company can easily have new equipment.

Advice: they provide advice in investment prospects in international finance markets as well as advice on the Stock Exchange.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

Virginia Woolf is one of the writers who express their dissatisfaction with the form of the traditional novel. She experimented with a new kind of novel in which time, influenced by Bergson's theories, was no longer chronological, but was reduced to the characters' time of the mind.

Her aim was to reproduced the inner reality of her characters, which, in her opinion, was much more important than the exterior, objective reality.

She used the technique of the interior monologue in order to create a direct contact between the reader and the workings of the minds of her characters. She adopter third-person narrators, which gives an impression of great detachment and makes narration more objective.

For her, life is incoherent and people are the mirror of such incoherence. Everyone has the opportunity to give form to the surrounding chaos thanks to his or her own epiphany.

An epiphany is a momentary, for Woolf it has an emotional connotation and is limited in time. It is a vision which shows us the meaning of life, but, when it passes away, chaos and uncertainty return. As she is a writer who insists on the subjectivity of the perception of the external world, the ambiguity and uncertainty of symbols are an obvious attraction to her. Each symbol can take on a different meaning for the person who looks at it, thus emphasizing the uniqueness of each individual and the distance that can exist between one individual and another even when gazing on external and shared reality. Together with symbols her fiction is also rich in imagery and sound devices, which contribute to the musicality of the style and to the creation of a highly poetic atmosphere. Her obsession with others' approval or disapproval of her works was strictly linked to the obsession of her existence as an artist. She realized that to be an artist meant to have a perfect combination of masculine and feminine qualities. It is in to the lighthouse that the masculine and feminine are deeply analysed and there is a concrete example of the perfect union between the two. The structure of the novel reflects a particular idea of time while the structure of the book is based on the interior monologue, the consciousness of the individual is particularly highlighted. Each character struggle for a purpose in a world that is always changing and discovers what is meaningful from a myriad of experiences, seeking his or her own identity.PAGE 70