If the banks are seen as corrupt, individual depositors could pull their money out of them.

In its earlier days, Sterling had many conventional individual depositors and lent heavily to the garment industry.

It caters to midsized businesses, but doesn't pursue individual depositors seeking auto loans and checking accounts.

The individual depositor is free to pull his money out whenever he wants; yet that money can be used to finance projects that require long-term commitment.

While individual depositors in Japan are partly insured against losses, there is no system to protect banks that make loans to financial institutions that then fall.

Its effect would be to encourage large individual depositors to open accounts at different banks to obtain insurance.

If the bank can make more interest than CollegeSure certificates pay, individual depositors probably could do better on their own, too.

Moreover, each small individual depositor has little influence over setting the deposit interest rate.

This led to panic among individual depositors, who feared that their savings might not be available should Northern Rock go into receivership.

The collapse of the holding company also cost individual depositors, many of them retirees, nearly $250 million.