merchant bank

자료 1: 금융투자협회 증권용어사전

Merchant bank: 영국에서 어음인수 또는 증권발행을 주요업무로 하는 금융기관을 가리키며，그 기능여하에 따라 어음인수 등의 인수신용업무에 종사하 는 인수회사(accepting house)와 주식 및 사채의 발행 등을 지원 하는 발행회사(issuing house)로 크게 구분된다.머천트 뱅크는 전통적인 어음인수 및 주식발행업무와 관련하여 보험，은행，해운업무 등을 취급하고 리스，팩토링 및 상거래업무 등도 맡고 있다.이와 같이 머천트 뱅크는 종합적 금융기관의 성격을 띠고 있으며 일반적 으로는 종래의 은행업무개념에는 포함되지 않는 증권업무 등을 포함 한 광범한 부수업무를 자유롭게 수행하는 금융기관을 가리킨다. 나라에 따라서 투자은행 또는 금융회사른 명칭을 사용하기도 하는데 업무범위도 그 나라의 법규와 관습에 따라 다르다.

자료 2: 동아닷컴 현대시사용어사전(2004년판)

머천트뱅크(Merchant Bank): 국제금융에 중요한 역할을 한 영국의 금융업자. 그 중의 많은 사람이 독일에서 영국으로 이주한 무역업자와 상인 출신이기 때문에 이렇게 불린다. 따라서 그 업무도 원래는 무역금융이 중심이며 어음인수위원회에 가맹하고 있다. 유력한 머천트뱅크가 인수한 무역어음은 잉글랜드은행의 재할인 적격어음이 된다. 그러나 국제금융의 발전에 따라 활동범위는 내외 증권시장에서의 발행업무 기업컨설턴트, 합병사업, 리스업무, 금 거래 등 거의 모든 분야로 확대됐다. 전후 영국의 수출금융방식을 개발한 것도 머천트뱅크이며 유로달러 업무를 런던에서 개발한 것도 이들로서 초기의 유로달러시장은 이들에 의해 발전됐다고 말해진다.

자료 3: 영어야놀자: 시사용어 청취

Merchant Bank:종합금융회사(종금사): 영국의 merchant bank와 미국의 investment bank(투자은행)의 기능에 중장기 설비금융의 기능을 혼합하여 국내 현실에 맞도록 업무범위를 조정한 일종의 long-term financial institution(장기금융기관). 우리나라에는 1976년 importation of foreign capital(외자조달)을 원활히 하고 기업의 다양한 financial demands(금융수요)를 충족시킨다는 목적 아래 6개회사가 모두 외국회사와 form of joint venture(합작형태)로 설립됐다. 그 후 short-term finance firm(단자회사)이 종금으로 전환함으로써 현재는 모두 30여개사가 merchant bank(종합금융)의 간판아래 예금보험을 제외한 short-term financing(단기금융), securities investment(증권투자), trust(신탁), 사채주선 업무, lease(리스), 중장기 대출업, 외화조달 및 주선업무 등 거의 모든 financial business(금융업)를 영위하고 있다.

자료 4: 네이트백과(브리태니커)

머천트뱅크(merchant bank): 어음 인수나 증권 발행을 주요 업무로 하는 영국의 금융기관.

19세기 이후 국제금융에서 중요한 역할을 한 금융기관으로, 대부분 독일에서 영국으로 건너온 무역업자나 상인 출신들이 만든 것에서 그 이름이 비롯되었다. 업무도 원래 국제무역의 본거지였던 런던에서 수출업자가 발행한 어음을 수입업자 대신 인수해 주는 업무를 담당했던 무역금융 중심으로 이루어진다. 기능에 따라 무역어음 인수를 주로 하는 인수회사(accepting house)와 주식 및 사채 발행 등을 주로 하는 발행회사(issuing house)로 나뉜다. 한국의 종합금융회사는 영국의 머천트 뱅크를 모델로 하여 외자를 조달하고, 기업의 다양한 금융 수요를 충족시킨다는 목적에서 설립된 것이다. 1975년부터 설립되기 시작한 이들 종합금융회사는 1997년말 한국에 닥친 외환위기에 원인 제공을 했다는 비판을 받기도 했다

자료 5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_bank#cite_note-0

In banking, a merchant bank is a financial institution primarily engaged in offering financial services and advice to corporations and to wealthy individuals. The term can also be used to describe the private equity activities of banking.[1]
The chief distinction between an investment bank and a merchant bank is that [:]

• a merchant bank invests its own capital in a client company
• whereas an investment bank purely distributes (and trades) the securities of that company in its capital raising role.

Both merchant banks and investment banks provide fee based corporate advisory services including in relation to mergers and acquisitions.

History

Merchant banks, now so called, are in fact the original "banks". These were invented in the Middle Ages by Italian grain merchants. As the Lombardy merchants and bankers grew in stature based on the strength of the Lombard plains cereal crops, many displaced Jews fleeing Spanish persecution were attracted to the trade. They brought with them ancient practices from the middle and far east silk routes.

• Originally intended for the finance of long trading journeys, these methods were now utilized to finance the production of grain.

The Jews could not hold land in Italy, so they entered the great trading piazzas and halls of Lombardy, alongside the local traders, and set up their benches to trade in crops. They had one great advantage over the locals.

• Christians were strictly forbidden the sin of usury.
• The Jewish newcomers, on the other hand, could lend to farmers against crops in the field, a high-risk loan at what would have been considered usurious rates by the Church, but did not bind the Jews.

In this way they could secure the grain sale rights against the eventual harvest. They then began to advance against the delivery of grain shipped to distant ports. In both cases they made their profit from the present discount against the future price. This two-handed trade was time consuming and soon there arose a class of merchants, who were trading grain debt instead of grain.
The Jewish trader performed both finance (credit) and an underwriting (insurance) functions.

• He would derive an income from lending the farmer money to develop and manufacture[--][(]through seeding, growing, weeding and harvesting[)][--] his annual crop (the crop loan at the beginning of the growing season).
• He would underwrite (insure) the delivery of the crop (through crop or commodity insurance) to the merchant wholesaler who was the ultimate purchaser of the farmer’s harvest.
• And he would make arrangements to supply this buyer through alternative sources (the merchant function) of supply (such as grain stores or alternate producer markets), should any particular farming district suffer a seasonal crop failure.
• He could also keep the farmer (or other commodity producer) in business during a drought or other crop failure, through the issuance of a crop (or commodity) insurance against the hazard of failure of his crop.

Thus in his underlying financial function the merchant banker (trader) would ensure the continuous smooth flowing of the commodity (crop, wool, salt; salt-cod, etc.) markets by providing both credit and insurance.

It was a short step from financing trade on their own behalf to settling trades for others, and then to holding deposits for settlement of "billete" or notes written by the people who were still brokering the actual grain. And so the merchant's "benches" (bank is a corruption of the Italian for bench, banca, as in a counter) in the great grain markets became centers for holding money against a bill (billette, a note, a letter of formal exchange, later a bill of exchange, later still, a cheque).

These deposited funds were intended to be held for the settlement of grain trades, but often were used for the bench's own trades in the meantime. The term bankrupt is a corruption of the Italian banca rotta, or ["]broken bench["], which is what happened when someone lost his traders' deposits. Being "broke" has the same connotation.
A sensible manner of discounting interest to the depositors against what could be earned by employing their money in the trade of the bench soon developed; in short, selling an "interest" to them in a specific trade, thus overcoming the usury objection. Once again this merely developed what was an ancient method of financing long distance transport of goods.

Islam makes similar condemnations of usury as Christianity.

The medieval Italian markets were disrupted by wars and in any case were limited by the fractured nature of the Italian states. And so the next generation of bankers arose from migrant Jewish merchants in the great wheat growing areas of Germany and Poland. Many of these merchants were from the same families who had been part of the development of the banking process in Italy. They also had links with family members who had, centuries before, fled Spain for both Italy and England.

This course of events set the stage for the rise of banking names which still resonate today: Schroders, Warburgs, Rothschilds, even the ill-fated Barings, were all the product of the continental grain trade, and indirectly, the early Iberian persecution of Jews. These and other great merchant banking families dealt in everything from underwriting bonds to originating foreign loans. Bullion trading and bond issuing were some of the specialties of the Rothschild family.

Modern practices

Known as “accepting and issuing houses” in the U.K. and “investment banks” in the U.S., modern merchant banks offer a wide range of activities, including [:]

• portfolio management,
• credit syndication,
• acceptance credit,
• counsel on mergers and acquisitions,
• insurance, etc.

Of these two classes of merchant banks, the U.S. variant initiates loans and then sells them to investors.[2] Even though these companies call themselves "merchant banks," they have few, if any, of the characteristics of former merchant banks.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, The Weston Group, maintain an active merchant banking presence.

Further reading

• Ferris, Paul (1984). Gentlemen of Fortune: The World's Merchant and Investment Bankers. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78380-7.
• Wechsberg, Joseph (1966). The Merchant Bankers. Boston: Little, Brown.
• O'Sullivan, M.D. (1962). Italian Merchant Bankers in Ireland in the Thirteenth Century: A Study in the Social and Economic History of Medieval Ireland. Dublin: A. Figgis.
• Rosenbaum, Eduard (1962). M.M.Warburg & CO, Merchant Bankers of Hamburg; A Survey of the First 140 years, 1798 to 1938. London.

[edit]See also

• Investment bank
• List of finance topics
• List of international trade topics