The bank corresponds probably more nearly in its price-fixing problem to the public-service corporation than to any single type of industrial business. While within certain limits the bank can establish its own scale of charges, it cannot fix these in any one instance very differently from the rates which are established in the open market unless it wants to cut itself off from business. Banking is a highly competitive enterprise and is not ordinarily monopolistic in any sense of the term, so that the bank is always obliged to face the question of competition and of market rates. When the banker goes into business he has to recognize, therefore, that his rates must under ordinary conditions conform to those which prevail in the community at the time, and that he will not ordinarily be able to raise them very much merely because of his own costs or expenses. Good management in banking (assuming that only sound paper is bought and that no losses are incurred) is thus a problem which involves two elements - that of costs and that of investment of funds in such a way as to get the best return from them. The former question, that of cost of operation, may be reserved for treatment elsewhere (see Chapter XIII). At this point it is desired to consider merely the question of charges for services, and, as has already been indicated, this question is in large measure a question of competitive conditions, since the banker must accept the situation prevailing in the community.