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When we consider banking services, oftentimes the best way to look at how they're structured is to consider the type of client and the complexity of that client's needs. The type of client will be broken out between individual consumers versus entities, businesses, governments, and institutions. The complexity of needs will include cash management requirements, complexities that arise through supply chain management, and those that relate to the amount of financing required.
It's important to note that banks may call these various banking services by different names, or they may even interchange these names. In this course, we're explaining each of the banking services using the names that are most traditionally used to make the distinctions between each.
Retail banking is the provision of banking services to individual consumers versus to organizations like larger companies. Services considered retail include checking and savings accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit and credit cards. For more information on the types of products offered by retail banking, you can refer to our banking products and services course.
Private banking is a subset of retail banking where retail banking is provided to any individual consumer looking for retail banking products. Private banking caters to high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. A high net worth individual is typically defined as someone with a liquid net worth of over 1 million U.S. dollars. Liquid net worth is defined as cash or assets that are easily converted to cash, like bonds and equity. An ultra high net worth individual is typically defined as someone with a liquid net worth of over 5 million U.S. dollars. The reason it's called private banking is because the customer service given to these individuals is on a more personal basis than in traditional retail banking, usually through a dedicated relationship manager. The bank will provide traditional deposit and payment products, as all retail banking products, along with asset management, brokerage-related services, and some limited tax advisory services as well.
Business banking is typically what we refer to as banking services provided to small businesses. There are a lot of definitions for what a small business is; however, in banking, it's usually viewed as a business that is owner-operated, has few employees, and has annual revenues of up to 5 million, usually dollars, euros, or pound sterling. Further, these businesses have very simple banking needs, typically business checking and savings accounts. They'll also have some straightforward working capital management needs and would benefit from merchant services, like the ability to take debit and credit card payments. Where they do need a line of credit or a loan, the amount usually wouldn't exceed a million. Anything more than that would push them into a commercial banking category. Think about what kind of businesses could use business banking services. They could include mechanic repair shops, plumbing and heating companies, hair salons, and owners of a franchise. They could also include professional services firms, like dental offices and small law and accounting firms. Although their needs are simple, small businesses differ in support from a regular consumer, and this is why the products and services are separate from retail banking. Sometimes they may need extra cash to help support their day-to-day operations, and sometimes they may need it to purchase a new piece of equipment, buy a new property, or even to finance their next stage of growth.
Commercial banking is the next step up and is larger in scale than business banking. Clients using commercial banking products and services tend to have more complex needs, and this includes having a more complex supply chain. Clients of commercial banking services tend to be medium-sized businesses, often with around 500 employees, multiple locations, and possibly various geographic locations as well. Commercial banking clients may also include other financial institutions and local or regional governments. The needs of commercial banking clients are focused around operating accounts and loan finance products, transaction banking, such as cash and treasury management products and services, trade finance, and foreign exchange. There will also be some advisory services provided in commercial banking, but as the client needs change and grow more complex, they'll usually move into the next tier of banking services, which is corporate banking. For more information on the types of products offered by commercial banking, you can refer to our banking products and services course.
Corporate banking services are for those clients whose needs are even more complex than in commercial banking. Corporate banking clients still likely include mid-size companies, but these are companies that are growing through mergers and acquisitions or are perhaps moving into the publicly traded space. These companies can include large domestic and multinational corporations, financial and other institutions, and governments. Revenues of these organizations will be over a hundred million and are often well over a billion, and of course, I'm referring to dollars, euros, or pound sterling. Corporate banking services are largely credit-related with an advisory component, and in some ways, they act in between the commercial banking services the client will be using, such as operating accounts, trade finance, and cash management, and the other areas of the bank, such as debt capital markets. Specifically, corporate banking services provide credit expertise and assist with deal execution with deals that tend to be well over a hundred million. As such, there is almost always some form of multi-bank model in place for putting together loan syndications. Often too, corporate banking services will work to help structure complex needs around working capital management across multiple entities and also where there may be a need to access debt capital markets products as well. For more information on the types of products offered by corporate banking, you can refer to our banking products and services course.
Investment banking provides a different service to its clients. Investment banks are non-deposit-taking, instead focusing on transactions that help their clients access different markets. Clients of investment banks tend to be large publicly traded corporations, institutions, and governments. These clients are looking for banking services that are associated with large or complex financial transactions, most of which can be classified into one of two categories: corporate finance, working on mergers and acquisitions and providing other advisory services, and capital markets, providing access to debt and equity markets through underwriting, research, sales, and trading. Investment banking services are often broken down into three market segments: tier one, sometimes referred to as bulge bracket, provides services regarding large transactions for multinational corporates; tier two, or middle market, provides service to mid-size companies; and tier three, or boutique market, provides service to specialized businesses.
Some of the services between corporate banks and investment banks may seem similar, but in fact, these two types of banking services are somewhat different. The tie is that corporate banking services provide advisory services, but these are different to that provided by investment banks. In a way, you can consider corporate banking to be an intermediary. They often maintain the main banking relationship with their client but will refer them to the investment bank when a transaction is required, such as for a merger and acquisition, or where their client wants to raise funds through either an equity offering, such as the sale of their shares in the public market, or offering bonds in the debt market. For example, if a privately held company wanted to go public, it would go to an investment bank to help complete an initial public offering, also referred to as an IPO, where the bank would underwrite the shares and then act as the go-between in the issuance and selling of those shares. For more information on the types of products and services offered by investment banking, you can refer to our banking products and services course.