BUSINESS ENGLISH Part I. Business Texts 9 Unit 1 - English Banks 9 Unit 2- The Banking System (1) 11 Unit 3 – The Banking System (2) 13 Unit 4 – Financial Markets 15 Unit 5 – The Euro 18 Unit 6 – Money Market 21 Unit 7 – Euromarkets 23 Unit 8 – Banking Risk Management 25 Unit 9 – Securisation 28 Unit 10 – Money Laundering 30 Unit 11- What is Business ? 32 Unit 12 – Organization of Business 34 Unit 13 – What is a franchise? 36 Unit 14 – Microeconomics and Macroeconomics 38 Unit 15 – Two Basic Concepts in Finance: Assets and 41 Liabilities Unit 16 – What is marketing ? 43 Unit 17 – The Stock Exchange Market 46 Unit 18 – Functions of Commerce 49 Unit 19 – An Export Transaction 51 Unit 20 – Methods of Payment in Foreign Trade 53 Part II . English Grammar 56 The Noun 56 Exercises 61 The Article 63 Exercises 71 The Adjective 73 Exercises 77 The Numeral 79 Exercises 83 The Verb 83 Exercises 98 The Adverb 115 Exercises 119 Part III. Commercial Correspondence 121 Addressing envelopes 121 Parts of a letter 121 References 122 Enquires and replies 124 Quotations, estimates and tenders 128 Orders and their fulfillment. Printed Order Forms. 129 Letter order 129 Invoices and adjustments 138 Debit and credit notes 139 Statement of accounts 140 Methods of payment 141 Complaints 142 Contracts 144 Special business letters 151 Memorandums 154 Report 157 Leaflet 159 Notice 160 Minute 161 Letter of application 162 Curriculum Vitae 165 Banking and Home Business 167 Transport 171 PART I I. BUSINESS TEXTS UNIT 1 ENGLISH - BANKS There are a lot of banks in our tows and villages and even the internet offers you the opportunity to do “on line banking” as you can pay for goods and services with a little smart card. Speaking about the UK, one has to go back in time, three hundred years ago, to find the beginning of the banking system. The banks were subject to the provisions of the various Acts of the Parliament. The Bank of England was established in 1694 and it was nationalized in 1946 due to the Bank of England Act and got legal powers to enforce its directives. After the second world war, many companies set themselves all over the country, called themselves banks, had freedom to develop themselves but some restrictions were also imposed. The financial markets developed very quickly. London became an important banking town and started to attract international banks. In 1987, the Banking Act was passed; it peplaced another Banking Act, that of 1979, which, at its turn, answered to the 1973- 1974 banking crisis. This crisis was caused by the fringe banks which got into difficult situations because of their short term borrowing and long term lending. These banks were not subject to rigorous supervision, they operated speculatively with the funds owned by their customers. The Banking Act abolished a two-tier system of the recognized banks; it licensed deposit-takers. Its purpose is the introduction of a prudential supervision. But it does not regulate the day to day banking operations. All the institutions that are banks are under the control of the Banking Act; there are other institutions that have the right to take deposits and they are subjects to the Acts of Parliament which are relevant to their operations. Banks and insurance companies are allowed to own stock exchange subsidiaries. A new electronic system has been introduced bringing the old fashioned banking system up to date. In fact the banks act as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders. This is done in different ways. 3 Text Comprehension 1. Answer the following questions: When was the Bank of England founded? What acts control the banks? What happened in 1946? What happened after the Second World War? When was an important bank crisis and what happened? What did the Banking Act abolish and license? Does it regulate the every day operations? Who control the banks What o the acts of Parliament do? What are the banks? 2.Banking vocabulary: • Asset (orice posesiune, tangibila sau intangibila, care are valoare pentru posesorul sau) • Bank (banca; institutie comerciala autorizata sa atraga depozite) • Borrower( persoana care face un imprumut ) • Deposit (suma de bani, platita in avans de catre un comparator, ca parte a pretului de vanzare a unui produs, in scopul rezervarii acelui bun; suma de bani depozitata intr-o banca) • Financial adviser (orice persoana care ofera consiliere pe plan financiar altei personae, in special in privinta investitiilor ) • Interest(dobanda perceputa la imprumutarea unei sume de bani) • Intermediation(activitatea unei banci… care actioneaza ca intermediary intre doua parti ale unei tranzactii) • Liabilities(datorie; obligatie) • Loan(imprumut, credit) • Payer(persoana sau organizatie care face o plata) 4 3. Topics for speaking and writing Write a short composition about the bank you are working with Build up a conversation about a bank; you are a bank clerk and try to convince somebody to become the bank customer UNIT 2 THE BANKING SYSTEM (1) Banking and financial market operations involve special institutions and financial markets; they act within a legislative framework and offer specialized services to individuals, companies, governments. Let’s present some of them. The Bank of England is the central bank of the kingdom. It acts as a banker to all the other banks and government; it issues the bank notes; it manages the national debt; it lends money to all the banking institutions; it regulates the monetary and credit conditions and supervises the banking system. The commercial banks are ruled by the Banking Act of 1987 and are allowed to take deposits and lend money on the retail and wholesale markets. They offer banking services. Retail banks offer their services to the individuals and medium sized businesses. They operate through branches which offer cash deposits, withdrawal facilities as well as possibilities of transferring funds. They provide facilities to different types of account such as current accounts, deposit accounts; they offer loans and different financial services. International banking is developing. Foreign banks have branches everywhere, especially in the large cities and important towns of the countries. London is famous for this. There are banks which operate mainly overseas and are specialized in particular areas of the world: Far East, Asia, South Africa, and South America. Text Comprehension a) Answer the questions: 1. What do banking and financial markets involve? 2. What does the Bank of England do? 5 3. Do you know anything about the National Bank of Romania? 4. What do you know about the commercial banks? 5. What do the retail banks do? 6. Can you describe some Romanian banks? 7. What can you tell about international banking? 8. Are there international banks in Romania? 9. Are there Romanian banks abroad? Banking vocabulary: • Account (cont gestionat de o banca) • Balance of payments (registrele care reflecta tranzactiile unei companii cu lumea din afara) • Bank deposit (deposit bancar) • Bank charge (comision bancar) • Bank draft (trata) • Current account (cont curent) • Drawer (persoana care semneaza o cambie) • Drawee (persoana careia i s-a tras o cambie) • Insurance (asigurare) • Liquidity (masura a lichiditatii activelor unei organizatii) • Market (piata) • Negotiable (negociabil) • Overdraft (plafon de creditare) • Penalty (penalizare) • Profitability (capacitatea de a face profit)) • Savings (economii) • Share (actiune, parte sociala) • Withdrawal (retragere ) 3.Topics for speaking and writing : - Write a short composition (200 words), using the above given vocabulary 6 7 UNIT 3 BANKING SYSTEM (2) Merchant Banks have their roots in the banking activity the merchants were involved in, as an extension of their own trading. They used to help foreign governments to get loans, to accept bills of exchange. Nowadays, they offer services including corporate finance, foreign exchange dealings, security trading. National Savings is a saving scheme supported by the government which aids government borrowing using a set of saving instruments. Some of these are the fixed-interest and index- linked Savings Certificates. The National Savings, at the very beginning, offered deposit services to customers, through Post Office branches. It does not make loans. Discount Houses are specific to Britain and are an important element of the British monetary system. They are between the Bank of England and the rest of the banking sector; they promote the orderly flow of funds between the authorities and the banks. They receive the liquid money of the banking sector, lend to the government for the weekly offer of Treasury Bills. They trade on the wholesale money market. Investment institutions collect the savings from the persons and corporation sectors; they invest them in securities and in different assets. Some of them are: insurance companies, insurance brokers, pension funds, unit trusts, investment trusts. Special financial institutions operate in the public sector and in the private one. They offer loan finance and equity capital. The latter include finance houses, leasing houses, factoring companies, venture capital companies. Text Comprehension 1. Answer the questions: 1. Who founded the merchant banks and why? 2.Do we have such banks in Romania? 3.What can you tell about the National Savings ? 4.Does Romania have such a system and how does it act? 5. How do discount houses act? 6.What are the investment institutions? 8 7.Where do special finance institutions operate ? Banking vocabulary • Acquisition accounting (proceduri contabile