Commercial banks are essentially banks which are in the classic banking business of accepting deposits and making loans. Banks like Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Dai Ichi Kangyo, Barclays and National Westminster are all commercial banks. Other banks, like Deutsche and Union Bank of Switzerland would say that they were ‘universal’ banks: that is, they cover all kinds of banking, including both commercial and investment banking. In the UK, if a commercial bank carries out investment banking, it will do so through a subsidiary, for example, National Westminster Bank — NatWest Markets. In Germany and Switzerland (and to a lesser extent France, the Netherlands and Spain) they will do so within the same legal entity. In the US and Japan, commercial banks are prevented from doing investment banking by regulation (see Chapter 5).