Saving accounts (UK: savings accounts) are accounts maintained by retail financial institutions that pay interest but cannot be used directly as money in the narrow sense of a medium of exchange (for example, by writing a cheque). These accounts let customers set aside a portion of their liquid assets while earning a monetary return. For the bank, money in a savings account may not be callable immediately and, in some jurisdictions, does not incur a reserve requirement. Cash in the bank's vaults may thus be used, for example, to fund interest-paying loans.