The financial system consists of funds flowing from surplus entities to deficit entities. These funds are a vital tool for surplus entities, as they can create greater wealth. These funds are also equally, if not more vital, for deficit entities. Deficit entities use these funds to finance their plans.
The financial system is ever more becoming a fact of human existence, and the biggest part of this financial system, is the flow of funds from surplus entities to deficit entities. To match with the growing need for the use of the financial system, there is a growing diversity in the way these funds can flow.
In 2008, where financial systems are used on a daily, if not hourly basis, we find that these systems are continually improving into a more ‘modern’ financial system. This can be seen with the enormous boost in the number of automatic teller machines (ATMs) from 4600 in 1990 to over 21 000 by 2005 and the even more astonishing boost in the number of EFTPOS terminals in the same time period from 15 500 to over 465 000.
The introduction of money and the development of local markets to trade goods were the genesis of