According to the Act on Banks (Act No. 21/1992 Coll., adopted on 21 December 1991), a bank is a joint-stock company accepting deposits from the public and granting loans, which has been authorised (licensed) to act as a bank for these purposes. Banks obtain free resources from economic agents, who deposit them with banks in various types of deposits (e.g. demand deposits, time deposits, savings deposits) or use them to purchase debt securities issued by the bank (e.g. debt, savings and other deposit securities and certificates/CDs); banks also obtain loans from other banks. They use these sources to supplement their own capital. The bank then allocates (distributes) these resources: lending/crediting its customers, buying debt and equity securities, depositing them with other banks, etc.