The Early Days
The very 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. Interestingly, there is evidence too of credit, whereby in return for a payment from a client, a Money Lender 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. The ascent of Christianity in Rome and its influence restricted banking, as the charging of interest and usury were seen as immoral. Jewish entrepreneurs, free of Christian taboos about money, established themselves in the provision of financial services increasingly demanded by the expansion of European trade and commerce.
Major Events in Banking History
• Florentine banking — The Medicis and Pittis among others
• Knights Templar
• Banknotes — Introduction of paper money
• Bank of Amsterdam
• Bank of Sweden — The rise of the national banks
• Bank of England — The evolution of modern central banking policies
• Bank of America — The invention of centralized check and payment processing technology
• Swiss banking
• United States Banking
• Imperial Bank of Persia — History of banking in the Middle-East
US Banking History
The modern Western economic and financial heritage begins as early as the establishment of Jonathan's Coffee-House, which later became the London Stock Exchange. This became a base for stock traders expelled from the Royal Exchange. In 1698 John Castaing, began publishing a twice weekly newsletter of share and commodity prices, which he sold at Jonathan's. One of the oldest London Banking institutions still operating today is Barclays Bank, 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.
With the coming of democratic 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, money holders 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.
By the early 1900s New York was beginning to emerge as the world’s leading 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 of 1929
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 it-self, 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.
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.
Recovery
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 not it for the profound effects the internationalization of financial markets had on the U.S. Foreign investments, particularly from Japan, 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: non-banks. 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 services providers included four non-banks.
In recent years, the process of financial innovation has advanced enormously increasing the importance and profitability of non-bank finance. Such profitability priorly restricted to the non-banking 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 the banking and non-banking industries, the distinction between different financial institutions is gradually vanishing.
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