"transfer of purchasing power through time (by saving/credit)" Except that isn't true because banks create money when they advance credit and always have done.

"transfer of purchasing power through time (by saving/credit)" Except that isn't true because banks create money when they advance credit and always have done. There is no transfer. There is a liquidity provision that aims to offset the drain of liquidity to financial savings. The two don't necessarily match, and mostly they don't, with a system tendency towards net financial saving. Purchasing power is improved by banks because they take things that are not liquid and provide a more liquid instrument in exchange. In that sense they are not that much different from market makers.