section_path: Challenges within the banking industry/Loan activities of banks
section_name: Loan activities of banks
paragraph_text: Loan activities of banks
  
  To be able to provide home buyers and builders with the funds needed, banks must compete for deposits. The phenomenon of disintermediation had to dollars moving from savings accounts and into direct market instruments such as U.S. Department of Treasury obligations, agency securities, and corporate debt. One of the greatest factors in recent years in the movement of deposits was the tremendous growth of money market funds whose higher interest rates attracted consumer deposits.
  
  To compete for deposits, US savings institutions offer many different types of plans: