My in-laws outside Paris still have a full set of the Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Edition
I couldn't resist retyping this delicious paragraph from p.707 in the section entitled (portentously?) "Industrial Finance".
Long-term
and medium-term lending
“Banks
that do a great deal of long-term lending to industry must ensure their
liquidity by maintaining relatively large capital funds and a relatively high
proportion of time deposits, as well as valuing their investments very
conservatively. Such banks, notably the French banques d’affaires and the West German commercial banks, have
developed special means of reducing their degree of risk. Every investment is
preceded by a thorough technical and financial investigation. The initial
advance may be an interim credit, later converted into a participation. Only
when market conditions are favourable is the original investment converted into
marketable securities, and an issue of shares to the public is arranged. One
function of these banks is to nurse an investment along until the venture is
well established. Even assuming its ultimate success, a bank may be obliged to
hold such shares for long periods before being able to liquidate them...”
