The process of settling transactions between banks. Because so many transactions take place between banks on a given day, bank clearing exists to process what each party owes or is owed in a central location so the least amount of money actually changes hands. For example, suppose Bank A owes $1 million to Bank B in cleared checks, but Bank B owes Bank A $1.5 million.
In economics, the minimum efficient scale is described as the lowest level on the long-run average total cost curve. It is also called the output of long-run productive efficiency. The minimum efficient scale is never a single level of output; rather, it is a range of outputs whereby the average cost is reduced. The minimum efficient scale differs from one economic sector to another due to the varying cost structures.
The elasticity of scale provides a means of determining the scale for any level of operations. It is a local rather than global measure. The output elasticity for constant returns to scale is 1; for increasing returns to scale, greater than 1 and for decreasing returns to scale, less than 1.