History of banking
The history of banking is closely related to the history of money. As monetary payments became important, people looked for ways to safely store their money. As trade grew, merchants looked for ways of borrowing money to fund expeditions.
Earliest banks
The first banks were probably the religious temples of the ancient world. In them were stored gold in the form of easy-to-carry compressed plates. Their owners justly felt that temples were the safest places to store their gold as they were constantly attended, well built and were sacred, thus deterring would-be thieves. There are extant records of loans from the 18th century BC in Babylon that were made by temple priests to merchants.
Ancient Greece holds further evidence of banking. Greek temples as well as private and civic entities conducted financial transactions such as loans, deposits, currency exchange, and validation of coinage. There is evidence too of credit, whereby in return for a payment from a client, a moneylender in one Greek port would write a credit note for the client who could "cash" the note in another city, saving the client the danger of carting coinage with him on his journey.
Ancient Rome perfected the administrative aspect of banking and saw greater regulation of financial institutions and financial practices. Charging interest on loans and paying interest on deposits became more highly developed and competitive.
During the Dark and Middle ages
The ascent of Christianity in Rome and its influence restricted banking, as the charging of interest was seen as immoral. Jews were ostracized from most professions by local rulers, the Church and the guilds, were pushed into marginal occupations considered socially inferior, such as tax and rent collecting and moneylending, while the provision of financial services increasingly demanded by the expansion of European trade and commerce.
According to Paul Johnson,
A great deal of Jewish legal scholarship in the Dark and the Middle Ages was devoted to making business dealings fair, honest and efficient. One of the great problems was usury, or rather lending money at interest. This was a problem the Jews had created for themselves, and for the two great religions which spring from Judaism. Most early religious systems in the ancient Near East, and the secular codes arising from them, did not forbid usury. These societies regarded inanimate matter as alive, like plants, animals and people, and capable of reproducing itself. Hence if you lent 'food money', or monetary tokens of any kind, it was legitimate to charge interest. Food money in the shape of olives, dates, seeds or animals was lent out as early as c. 5000 BC, if not earlier. ... Among the Mesopotamians, Hittites, Phoenicians and Egyptians, interest was legal and often fixed by the state. But the Jews took a different view of the matter.
The Torah and later sections of the Hebrew Bible criticize interest-taking, but interpretations of the Biblical prohibition vary. One common understanding is that Jews are forbidden to charge interest upon loans made to other Jews, but allowed to charge interest on transactions with non-Jews, or Gentiles. However, the Hebrew Bible itself gives numerous examples where this provision was evaded.[3] Johnson holds that the Hebrew Bible treats the lending as philanthropy in a poor community whose aim was collective survival, but which is not obliged to be charitable towards outsiders.
Ironically, the papal bankers were the most successful of the Western world. When Pope John XXII (born Jacques d'Euse (1249 - 1334) was crowned in Lyon in 1316, he set up residency in Avignon. The accompanying growth of Italian banking in France was the start of the Lombard moneychangers in Europe, who moved from city to city along the busy pilgrim routes important for trade. Key cities in this period were Cahors, the birthplace of Pope John XXII, and Figeac. Perhaps it was because of these origins that the term Lombard is synonymous with Cahorsin in medieval Europe, and means 'pawnbroker'.
Templars' wide flung larger, land holdings across Europe also emerged in the 1100-1300 time frame as the beginning of Europe-wide banking as their practice was to take in local currency for which a demand note would be given that would be a at any of their castles across Europe, allowing movement of currency money without usual risk of robbery while traveling.
Following up this Europe-wide Templar banking was the Rothschild family who organized similar banks across Europe as in Germany and Britain.
Western banking history
Modern Western economic and financial history is usually traced back to the coffee houses of London. The London Royal Exchange was established in 1565. At that time moneychangers were already called bankers, though the term "bank" usually referred to their offices, and did not carry the meaning it does today. There was also a hierarchical order among professionals; at the top were the bankers who did business with heads of state, next were the city exchanges, and at the bottom were the pawn shops or "Lombard"'s. Most European cities today have a Lombard street where the pawn shop was located.
After the siege of Antwerp trade moved to Amsterdam. In 1609 the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank (Amsterdam Exchange Bank) was founded which made Amsterdam the financial center of the world until the Industrial Revolution.
Banking offices were usually located near centers of trade, and in the late 17th century, the largest centers for commerce were the ports of Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg. Individuals could participate in the lucrative East India trade by purchasing bills of credit from these banks, but the price they received for commodities was dependent on the ships returning (which often didn't happen on time) and on the cargo they carried (which often wasn't according to plan). The commodities market was very volatile for this reason, and also because of the many wars that led to cargo seizures and loss of ships.
Coffee houses of London
Coffeehouse proprietors overheard many conversations about business and even made modest investments themselves. They came up with the idea of producing lists of share prices or shipping data. The weekly published lists of the London coffee houses (simply pasted to the door) made it possible for the first time to compare the relative success (and liquidity) of bankers and investment opportunities. This was much more efficient than word of mouth. These lists were most notably Jonathan's Coffee-House and Edward Lloyd's. In 1698 John Castaing, began publishing a twice weekly newsletter of share and commodity prices, which he sold at Jonathan's, and which led to the London Stock Exchange. Lloyd's list led to the establishment of the famous insurance company Lloyds of London.
Capitalism
Around the time of Adam Smith (1776) there was a massive growth in the banking industry. Within the new system of ownership and investment, moneyholders were able to reduce the State's intervention in economic affairs, remove barriers to competition, and, in general, allow anyone willing to work hard enough—and who also has access to capital—to become a capitalist. It wasn’t until over 100 years after Adam Smith, however, that US companies began to apply his policies in large scale and shift the financial power from England to America.
The growth of commercial banking
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US financial market
By the early 1900s New York was beginning to emerge as a world financial center. Companies and individuals acquired large investments in (other) companies in the US and Europe, resulting in the first true market integration. This comparatively high level of market integration proved especially beneficial when World War I came—both sides in the conflict sought funds from the United States, by issuing new securities and selling existing holdings, though the Allied Powers raised by far the larger amounts. Being a lender to the world resulted in the largest growth of a financial economy to that point.
The stock market crash in 1929 was a global event—markets crashed everywhere, all at the same time, and the volume of foreign selling orders was high. The Great Depression followed, and the banks were blamed for it, although the evidence has never been strong to connect the speculative activities of the banks during the 1920s with either the crash or the subsequent depression of the 1930s. Nonetheless, there were three prominent results from these events that had great effect on American banking. The first was the passage of the Banking Act of 1933 that provided for the Federal Deposit Insurance system and the Glass–Steagall provisions that completely separated commercial banking and securities activities. Second was the depression itself, which led in the end to World War II and a 30-year period in which banking was confined to basic, slow-growing deposit taking and loan making within a limited local market only. And third was the rising importance of the government in deciding financial matters, especially during the post-war recovery period. As a consequence, there was comparatively little for banks or securities firms to do from the early 1930s until the early 1960s.
Global banking
In the 1970s, a number of smaller crashes tied to the policies put in place following the depression, resulted in deregulation and privatization of government-owned enterprises in the 1980s, indicating that governments of industrial countries around the world found private-sector solutions to problems of economic growth and development preferable to state-operated, semi socialist programs. This spurred a trend that was already prevalent in the business sector, large companies becoming global and dealing with customers, suppliers, manufacturing, and information centers all over the world.
Global banking and capital market services proliferated during the 1980s and 1990s as a result of a great increase in demand from companies, governments, and financial institutions, but also because financial market conditions were buoyant and, on the whole, bullish. Interest rates in the United States declined from about 15% for two-year U.S. Treasury notes to about 5% during the 20-year period, and financial assets grew then at a rate approximately twice the rate of the world economy. Such growth rate would have been lower, in the last twenty years, were it not for the profound effects of the internationalization of financial markets especially U.S. Foreign investments, particularly from Japan, who not only provided the funds to corporations in the U.S., but also helped finance the federal government; thus, transforming the U.S. stock market by far into the largest in the world.
Nevertheless, in recent years, the dominance of U.S. financial markets has been disappearing and there has been an increasing interest in foreign stocks. The extraordinary growth of foreign financial markets results from both large increases in the pool of savings in foreign countries, such as Japan, and, especially, the deregulation of foreign financial markets, which has enabled them to expand their activities. Thus, American corporations and banks have started seeking investment opportunities abroad, prompting the development in the U.S. of mutual funds specializing in trading in foreign stock markets.
Such growing internationalization and opportunity in financial services has entirely changed the competitive landscape, as now many banks have demonstrated a preference for the “universal banking” model so prevalent in Europe. Universal banks are free to engage in all forms of financial services, make investments in client companies, and function as much as possible as a “one-stop” supplier of both retail and wholesale financial services.
Many such possible alignments could be accomplished only by large acquisitions, and there were many of them. By the end of 2000, a year in which a record level of financial services transactions with a market value of $10.5 trillion occurred, the top ten banks commanded a market share of more than 80% and the top five, 55%. Of the top ten banks ranked by market share, seven were large universal-type banks (three American and four European), and the remaining three were large U.S. investment banks who between them accounted for a 33% market share.
This growth and opportunity also led to an unexpected outcome: entrance into the market of other financial intermediaries: nonbanks. Large corporate players were beginning to find their way into the financial service community, offering competition to established banks. The main services offered included insurances, pension, mutual, money market and hedge funds, loans and credits and securities. Indeed, by the end of 2001 the market capitalization of the world’s 15 largest financial service providers included four nonbanks.
In recent years, the process of financial innovation has advanced enormously increasing the importance and profitability of nonbank finance. Such profitability priorly restricted to the nonbanking industry, has prompted the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)to encourage banks to explore other financial instruments, diversifying banks' business as well as improving banking economic health. Hence, as the distinct financial instruments are being explored and adopted by both the banking and nonbanking industries, the distinction between different financial institutions is gradually vanishing.
Major events in banking history
Florentine banking — The Medicis and Pittis among others
Knights Templar- earliest Euro wide /Mideast banking 1100-1300.
Banknotes — Introduction of paper money
1602 - First joint-stock company, the Dutch East India Company founded
1800 - Rothschild family founds Euro wide banking.
1720 - The South Sea Bubble and John Law's Mississippi Scheme, which caused a European financial crisis and forced many bankers out of business
1803 - The Louisiana Purchase was the largest land deal in history
1929 - Stock market crash
1989 - junk bond scandal and charges against Michael Milken resulted in new legislation for investment banks
2001 - Enron bankruptcy, causing new legislation for annual reporting








Oldest private banks:
Barclays which was founded by John Freame and Thomas Gould in 1690. The bank was renamed to Barclays by Freame's son-in-law, James Barclay, in 1736.
Hope & Co., founded in 1762.
Barings Bank founded in 1806.
Rothschild family 1700 - present.
For French banking history, read the History of banks in France (in English or in French) on the FBF website.
Oldest national banks
Bank of Sweden — The rise of the national banks, is the central bank of Sweden, sometimes called just the Bank of Sweden.
Bank of England — The evolution of modern central banking policies- is the central bank of the United Kingdom, and as such it convenes the Monetary Policy Committee, which is responsible for the monetary policy of the country. It was established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, a role which it still fulfils today. The Bank's building is located in the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, and hence it is sometimes known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady. The current Governor of the Bank of England is Mervyn King, who took over on June 30, 2003 from Sir Edward George.
Bank of America — The invention of centralized check and payment processing technology - is the largest commercial bank in the United States measured in deposits (although Citigroup has higher assets worldwide), and the third-largest company in the world by the 2006 Forbes Global 2000. [1] [2] On 17 July 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion, surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time. Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Swiss banking - is characterized by stability, privacy and protection of clients' assets and information. The country's tradition of bank secrecy, which dates to the Middle Ages, was first codified in a 1934 law.[1] All banks in Switzerland are regulated by the Federal Banking Commission (FBC), which derives its authority from a series of federal statutes.
United States Banking - began in 1781 with an act of United States Congress that established the Bank of North America in Philadelphia. During the American Revolutionary War, the Bank of North America was given a monopoly on currency; prior to this time, private banks printed their own bank notes, backed by deposits of gold and/or silver.
Robert Morris, the first Superintendent of Finance appointed under the Articles of Confederation, proposed the Bank of North America as a commercial bank that would act as fiscal agent for the government. The monopoly was seen as necessary because previous attempts to finance the Revolutionary War with paper currency had failed; after the war, a number of banks were chartered by the states under the Articles of Confederation, including the Bank of New York and the Bank of Massachusetts, both of which were chartered in 1784.
The Bank of North America was succeeded by the First Bank of the United States, which the United States Congress chartered in 1791 under Article One, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, after the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation as the foundation of American government. However, Congress failed to renew the charter for the Bank of the United States, which expired in 1811. Similarly, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816 and shuttered in 1836.
The Pennsylvannia Land Bank, founded in 1723 and receiving the supportof Benjamin Franklin who wrote "Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency" in 1729[1].
Imperial Bank of Persia — History of banking in the Middle-East - was an Iranian bank. It was established in 1889 with a royal charter from Queen Victoria, and a concession from the government of Persia, making it the state bank of Persia. It was later named British Bank of the Middle East (BBME) and now called HSBC Bank Middle East.







Bank

The First Provincial Bank of Taiwan in Taipei, Republic of China was formerly the central bank of the Republic of China and issued the New Taiwan dollar.
A bank, [bæ?k] is a business that provides banking services for profit. Traditional banking services include receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions. Some banks (called Banks of Issue) issue banknotes as legal tender. Many banks offer ancillary financial services to make additional profit; for example: selling insurance products, investment products or stock broking.
Currently in most jurisdictions the business of banking is regulated and banks require permission to trade. Authorisation to trade is granted by bank regulatory authorities and provide rights to conduct the most fundamental banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. There are also financial institutions that provide banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank (see banking institutions).
Banks have a long history, and have influenced economies and politics for centuries.
Traditionally, a bank generates profits from transaction fees on financial services and from the interest it charges for lending. In recent history, with historically low interest rates limiting banks' ability to earn money by lending deposited funds, much of a bank's income is provided by overdraft fees and riskier investments.
Services typically offered by banks
Although the type of services offered by a bank depends upon the type of bank and the country, services provided usually include:
Taking deposits from their customers and issuing checking and savings accounts to individuals and businesses
Extending loans to individuals and businesses
Cashing cheques
Facilitating money transactions such as wire transfers and cashiers checks
Issuing credit cards, ATM cards, and debit cards
Storing valuables, particularly in a safe deposit box
Cashing and distributing bank rolls

Financial transactions can be performed through several different channels:
Branch
ATM
Mail
Telephone banking
Online banking
Types of banks
Banks' activities can be characterised as retail banking, dealing directly with individuals and small businesses, and investment banking, relating to activities on the financial markets. Most banks are profit-making, private enterprises. However, some are owned by government, or are non-profit making.
In some jurisdictions retail and investment activities are, or have been, separated by law.
Central banks are non-commercial bodies or government agencies often charged with controlling interest rates and money supply across the whole economy. They act as Lender of last resort in event of a crisis.
Types of retail banks
Commercial bank is the term used for a normal bank to distinguish it from an investment bank. After the great depression, the U.S. Congress required that banks only engage in banking activities, whereas investment banks were limited to capital markets activities. Since the two no longer have to be under separate ownership, some use the term "commercial bank" to refer to a bank or a division of a bank that mostly deals with deposits and loans from corporations or large businesses.
Community Banks are locally operated financial institutions that empower employees to make local decisions to serve their customers.
Community development banks are regulated banks that provide financial services and credit to underserved markets or populations.
Postal savings banks are savings banks associated with national postal systems.
Private banks manage the assets of high net worth individuals.
Offshore banks are banks located in jurisdictions with low taxation and regulation. Many offshore banks are essentially private banks.
Savings bank In Europe, savings banks take their roots in the 19th or sometimes even 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to all strata of the population. In some countries, savings banks were created on public initiative, while in others socially committed individuals created foundations to put in place the necessary infrastructure. Nowadays, European savings banks have kept their focus on retail banking: payments, savings products, credits and insurances for individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises. Apart from this retail focus, they also differ from commercial banks by their broadly decentralised distribution network, providing local and regional outreach and by their socially responsible approach to business and society.
Building societies and Landesbanks both conduct retail banking.
Ethical banks are banks that prioritize the transparency of all operations and make only social-responsible investments.
Types of investment banks
Investment banks "underwrite" (guarantee the sale of) stock and bond issues, trade for their own accounts, make markets, and advise corporations on capital markets activities such as mergers and acquisitions.
Merchant banks were traditionally banks which engaged in trade financing. The modern definition, however, refers to banks which provide capital to firms in the form of shares rather than loans. Unlike Venture capital firms, they tend not to invest in new companies.
Both combined
Universal banks, more commonly known as a financial services company, engage in several of these activities. For example, First Bank (a very large bank) is involved in commercial and retail lending, and its subsidiaries in tax-havens offer offshore banking services to customers in other countries. Other large financial institutions are similarly diversified and engage in multiple activities. In Europe and Asia, big banks are very diversified groups that, among other services, also distribute insurance, hence the term bancassurance.
Other types of banks
Islamic banks adhere to the concepts of Islamic law. Islamic banking revolves around several well established concepts which are based on Islamic canons. Since the concept of interest is forbidden in Islam, all banking activities must avoid interest. Instead of interest, the bank earns profit (mark-up) and fees on financing facilities that it extends to the customers. Also, deposit makers earn a share of the bank’s profit as opposed to a predetermined interest.
Banks in the economy
Role in the money supply
A bank raises funds by attracting deposits, borrowing money in the inter-bank market, or issuing financial instruments in the money market or a capital market. The bank then lends out most of these funds to borrowers.
However, it would not be prudent for a bank to lend out all of its balance sheet. It must keep a certain proportion of its funds in reserve so that it can repay depositors who withdraw their deposits. Bank reserves are typically kept in the form of a deposit with a central bank. This behaviour is called fractional-reserve banking and it is a central issue of monetary policy. Some governments (or their central banks) restrict the proportion of a bank's balance sheet that can be lent out, and use this as a tool for controlling the money supply. Regulatory authorities as part of bank regulation will still set a minimum figure even where the government does not control the reserve ratio.
Size of global banking industry
Worldwide assets of the largest 1,000 banks grew 15.5% in 2005 to reach a record $60.5 trillion. This follows a 19.3% increase in the previous year. EU banks held the largest share, 50% at the end of 2005, up from 38% a decade earlier. The growth in Europe’s share was mostly at the expense of Japanese banks whose share more than halved during this period from 33% to 13%. The share of US banks also rose, from 10% to 14%. Most of the remainder was from other Asian and European countries.
The US had by far the most banks (7,540 at end-2005) and branches (75,000) in the world. The large number of banks in the US is an indicator of its geographical dispersity and regulatory structure resulting in a large number of small to medium sized institutions in its banking system. Japan had 129 banks and 12,000 branches. In 2004, Germany, France, and Italy had more than 30,000 branches each—more than double the 15,000 branches in the UK[1].
Bank crises
Banks are susceptible to many forms of risk, which have triggered occasional systemic crises. Risks include liquidity risk (the risk that many depositors will request withdrawals beyond available funds), credit risk (the risk that those that owe money to the bank will not repay), and interest rate risk (the risk that the bank will become unprofitable if rising interest rates force it to pay relatively more on its deposits than it receives on its loans), among others.
Banking crises have developed many times throughout history when one or more risks materialize for a banking sector as a whole. Prominent examples include the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis in 1980s and early 1990s, the Japanese banking crisis during the 1990s, the bank run that occurred during the Great Depression, and the recent liquidation by the central Bank of Nigeria, where about 25 banks were liquidated.
Regulation
Main article: Bank regulation
The combination of the instability of banks as well as their important facilitating role in the economy led to banking being thoroughly regulated. The amount of capital a bank is required to hold is a function of the amount and quality of its assets. Major banks are subject to the Basel Capital Accord promulgated by the Bank for International Settlements. In addition, banks are usually required to purchase deposit insurance to make sure smaller investors are not wiped out in the event of a bank failure.
Another reason banks are thoroughly regulated is that ultimately, no government can allow the banking system to fail. There is almost always a lender of last resort—in the event of a liquidity crisis (where short term obligations exceed short term assets) some element of government will step in to lend banks enough money to avoid bankruptcy.