clearing banks

"Clearing banks carry out a multitude of roles although their distinguishing feature is that they obtain a bulk of their finance from private individuals through high street outlets..." What do u mean by high street outlets? And how is allowing transfer of money a distinguishing feature? Dont other banks allow the same? So how are clearing house different from other banks?

 

banks

"High Street" is a UK term - meaning the banks that you see in shopping centres on the main streets in towns and cities. These are called retail banks, who mainly have individuals as customers. This is what we have in mind when we say clearing banks - who transfer (or clear) money between different individual customers who may bank with the same or different bank.

This is different to investment banks - who mainly have companies as customers.

Some banks have both retail and investment arms.