Fractional Reserve Banking on Wikipedia

The fractional reserve banking page on Wikipedia has long been a source of edit-warring. It has generally presented the, now thoroughly discredited, "money multiplier" theory as if it was gospel. But now in the light of this new Bank of England document, the money multiplier defenders on Wikipedia have few arguments left. Today I posted on the discussion page a new opening section (below) which I hope to have accepted.

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Fractional reserve banking is a monetary system in which there are two types of money with one type constituting a fraction of the total, hence the name. The first type is known as central bank money or base money which is created by the central bank. The second type, known as broad money or demand deposits, is both created and destroyed by private banks as they make loans, or their loans are repaid. Broad money is essentially an IOU, from the private bank, of central bank money.

Central bank money can be further subdivided into two components, reserves and cash. Reserves are electronic and do not circulate outside of the banking sector, whilst cash takes the form of notes and coins which may be used by the public.

Banks typically loan out IOUs totalling more central bank money than they posses. This makes them vulnerable to a phenomena known as a bank run. Governments often have guarantees and or other policies to protect bank's customers in such circumstances.

There are regulations that require that a bank holds a minimum amount of capital and or reserves for any given amount of IOUs it has loaned out. The exact nature of these regulations may be different between different countries and at different times.

Fractional-reserve banking is the current form of banking in all countries worldwide.