Many people think that the role of a corporate bank is simply to lend money to companies. While this is a role that they play, it's not the only, or sometimes even the most profitable function of a corporate bank. We're going to explore the range of services offered by corporate banks using the idea of the House of Corporate Banking to illustrate the building blocks of what corporate banking is and how it covers a broad product range of banking solutions from the most basic of checking or current account solutions to the complexity of facilitating a company's ability to engage in global trade while minimizing risk and providing full transparency to the corporate clients. Let's start with the most basic of requirements that all businesses want from their corporate bank. Operational banking, businesses all need a checking or current account to be able to receive funds and make payments once a bank account has been opened and transactions processed through the account, this will create a balance on the account. Either the account is in credit, which is a surplus, or the account is in debit, which is a deficit. The corporate bank is responsible for providing the corporate client with information on the position of their bank account, as well as providing them with details of all payments made from or money received into their bank account. This information can be provided in real time or at the end of the day, whichever the client prefers. The corporate client may only operate in a local or regional area, but if they operate on a global basis, they will require services from either a single bank or a group of banks to meet their business footprint. And most importantly, the corporate bank has to provide a level of customer service that meets the client's needs, ranging from managing payroll payments to assisting with foreign exchange, from what is this credit on my account, type queries, to structuring a strategy for surplus balances that meets the client's treasury policy.