Thus, I consider whether First Independent Trust Company is a bank in the generic sense. In re Cash Currency Exch. In those accounts, special deposits are received from the various trustors who authorize First Independent Trust Company to invest in student loans. First Independent Trust Company promises that the depositors will receive the 91-day treasury bill rate plus 1 percent. Any surplus that First Independent Trust Company is able to generate is purely for the profit of First Independent Trust Company.
Customers anticipate that their funds are safe and comparatively liquid.
They do not regard themselves as making investments that entail substantial risk. Thus, the deposits make First Independent Trust Company look like a bank. Further light on conventional understanding of the term deposit also is shed by a key federal statutory definition. This supports the conclusion that the trust rate accounts are deposit, and that First Independent Trust Company has essential attributes of a bank. Thus, I conclude, under the independent classification test, First Independent Trust Company is a bank.