A bank account is a financial account recording the financial transactions between the customer and their bank and the resulting financial position of the customer with the bank.^{[citation needed]}

Bank accounts may have a positive, or credit balance, where the bank owes money to the customer; or a negative, or debit balance, where the customer owes the bank money.

Broadly, accounts opened with the purpose of holding credit balances are referred to as deposit accounts; whilst accounts opened with the purpose of holding debit balances are referred to as loan accounts.

Some accounts are defined by their function rather than nature of the balance they hold. Bank accounts designed to process large numbers of transactions may offer credit and debit facilities and therefore do not sit easily with a polarised definition.

The Government of Canada maintains a database of the fees and features of bank account packages offered by various financial institutions operating in Canada. The information is periodically incorporated in comparative tables and published in booklet form. The tables are also published in PDF form on the website of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. The database also feeds into an interactive online tool, that allows consumers to compare various bank-account packages online.