Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A deposit is a specific sum of money taken and held on account, by a bank as a service provided for its clients. A financial institution wishing to take deposits are generally required be under financial supervision, and to hold a banking license. The sum of the held deposits represents an asset, which the bank in turn can use to give loans. See also: Finance, purchase deposit. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.