A core bank can refer either to the primary institutional banking establishment where an individual or corporation maintains their principal checking and savings accounts, or to the centralized software processing architecture known as a core banking system. In software terminology, core banking applications manage a bank's most critical daily operations, including transaction posting, account ledgers, loan calculations, interest accruals, and customer data management across branch networks, online platforms, and automated teller machines. This central digital infrastructure allows financial institutions to process millions of customer transactions seamlessly and maintain real-time accuracy across all accounts.