sight deposit , także: sight fund

In the past, sight deposits did not pay interest.

The most familiar form of sight deposit are current accounts at banks.

Sight deposits are the other major item, accounting for around 28 per cent.

There are two major types of deposit: sight deposits and time deposits.

As you can see from the figures, the bulk of sight deposits are from the private sector: individuals and firms.

Sight deposits are any deposits that can be withdrawn on demand by the depositor without penalty.

Increasingly, sight deposits pay interest.

M3 comprises money in circulation, sight deposits and term and savings deposits of less than four years.

This is M1 minus the wholesale sight deposits but including all retail deposits (both sight and time).

For many years banks offered no interest on sight deposits and only a token rate of interest on time deposits.

Sight deposits.

Sight deposits are, in the main, cheque account funds while time deposits incorporate an element of withdrawal restriction, i.e. notice.

A high proportion of sight deposits necessitates an adequate cash reserve plus liquid assets to meet possible repayment of these demand claims on the bank.

M1 includes notes and coins held by the public plus all sterling sight deposits held by the private sector in United Kingdom banks.

For example, if people switched deposits from time deposits to sight deposits, M1 would rise but M4 would remain unchanged.

It also shows that their very small holdings of sight deposits enables them to hold very small reserves of notes, coin and bankers' balances.

It included notes and coin in circulation with the general public (but not in banks' tills), and sterling private sector sight deposits in banks.

Note that M3 includes time deposits in addition to sight deposits, and private sector holdings of sterling bank certificates of deposit (CDs).

Also, as Table 3.4 reveals, sight deposits form a large proportion of total deposits while column 4 shows that sterling business outweighs foreign business by nearly 2 to 1.

These are settled in the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) system via sight deposit accounts held with the National Bank.

The actual ratio that the Bank of England considers to be prudent will depend on the type of bank and its proportion of sight deposits to demand deposits.

Similarly, banks could encourage the general public to withdraw less cash: for example, by making time deposits more attractive than sight deposits or by encouraging a greater use of credit cards.

Only very short-term speculative balances will be held in sight deposits: they will be held mainly in time deposits which earn some interest, but which are still totally risk free.

Had M1 been retained as a narrow measure of money supply, it would have shown a sudden increase as the sight deposits in the Abbey National would now have been included.

In February 1989, while currency in circulation totalled £13.7 billion, private sector sterling sight deposits totalled £93.0 billion and private sector sterling time deposits totalled £122.5 billion.