A system of banking by which banks carry out investment banking and commercial banking at the same time. That is universal banks offer securities, banking, and insurance services under one roof, and are engaged in real estate, deposit taking, and other forms of lending, foreign exchange trading, as well as underwriting and portfolio management.

Universal banks have long assumed a leading role in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, and other Continental European countries. By contrast, in the Anglo-Saxon countries and in Japan, commercial and investment banking tend to be two separate lines of banking. Over the last two decades, though, most of these countries have softened the separation of investment and commercial banking without entirely following universal banking.