A savings bank is a financial institution whose primary purpose is accepting savings deposits. It may also perform some other functions. In Financial economics, a financial institution acts as an agent that provides financial services for its clients. ... In common usage, saving generally means putting money aside, for example, by putting money in the bank or investing in a pension plan. ...

In Europe, savings banks take their roots in the 19th or sometimes even 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to all strata of the population. In some countries, savings banks were created on public initiative, while in others socially committed individuals created foundations to put in place the necessary infrastructure.

Nowadays, European savings banks have kept their focus on retail banking : payments, savings products, credits and insurances for individuals or small and medium-sized entreprises. Apart from this retail focus, they also differ from commercial banks by their broadly decentralised distribution network, providing local and regional outreach and by their socially responsible approach to business and society.

• United States: see "Savings and loan association" and "Mutual savings bank" for details related to the United States.
• Soviet Union Traditionally, the Russian term sberkassa (сберкасса, сберегательная касса) is translated as "savings bank". However sberkassas were not banks in common sense. Initially they the outlets of the only Soviet State Bank, Gosbank until 1987 and Sberbank (USSR Savings Bank) afterwards.
• Communist Czechoslovakia: see Economy of Communist Czechoslovakia.
• New Zealand : Savings banks ceased to exist in 1987 as an official type of bank, being replaced with registered banks (Grimes, 1998)

A savings and loan association is a financial institution which specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage loans. ... A mutual savings bank is a financial institution chartered by state or federal government to: (1) provide a safe place for individuals to save and (2) invest those savings in mortgages loans, stocks, bonds and other securities. ... Sberkassa (Russian: , sberegatelnaya kassa; literally: savings office) in Soviet Union and modern Russia is a financial institution to store the savings of the population. ... Gosbank- Gosudarstvennyy bank--the State Bank The Gosbank was the central bank of the Soviet Union. ... Sberbank is the largest bank in the Russian Federation. ... This article is part of the main article: Czechoslovakia Introduction In the mid-1980s, Czechoslovakia was one of Eastern Europes most industrialized and prosperous countries. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sources

• 'Liberalisation of financial markets in New Zealand' Arthur Grimes, Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 1998 [1] Retrieved Feb. 11, 2006.