- Lending amounts in excess of its metallic reserve.
- Exploiting the fact that money left on deposit could profitably be lent out to borrowers.
- Since depositors were highly unlikely to ask ’en masse’ for their money, only a fraction of their money needed to be kept in the bank’s reserve at any given time. The liabilities of the bank thus became its deposits (on which the bank paid interest) plus its reserve (on which the bank could collect no interest); its assets became its loans (on which it could collect interest).