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From Wikipedia: History of Banking
The history begins with the first prototype banks of merchants of the ancient world, which made grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This began around 2000 BC in Assyria and Babylonia. Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples made loans and added two important innovations: they accepted deposits and changed money. Archaeology from this period in ancient China and India also shows evidence of money lending activity.
Many histories position the crucial historical development of a banking system to medieval and Renaissance Italy and particularly the affluent cities of Florence, Venice and Genoa. The Bardi and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts of Europe.[2] The most famous Italian bank was the Medici bank, established by Giovanni Medici in 1397.[3] The oldest bank still in existence is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, headquartered in Siena, Italy, which has been operating continuously since 1472.[4]
The development of banking spread from northern Italy throughout the Holy Roman Empire, and in the 15th and 16th century to northern Europe. This was followed by a number of important innovations that took place in Amsterdam during the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, and in London in the 18th century. During the 20th century, developments in telecommunications and computing caused major changes to banks' operations and let banks dramatically increase in size and geographic spread. The financial crisis of 2007–2008 caused many bank failures, including some of the world's largest banks, and provoked much debate about bank regulation.
The Five Most Influential Bankers of All Time
Mayer and Nathan Rothschild
Mayer Amschel Rothschild grew up in a Jewish ghetto in Germany. In the 1700s, Christian usury laws prevented many people from lending for a profit, leaving merchant banking as one of the few trades a Jewish individual could easily take up. Mayer did so, building a network by lending at low rates to politically important lords and princes. He used his connections to create a family fortune, training his sons in the practice of banking before sending them abroad. ...
Junius and J.P. Morgan
This father and son duo brought true finance to America. Junius Morgan helped George Peabody solidify America's ties with the capital markets in England. The English were the primary buyers of the state bonds being used to build up America. His son, J.P. Morgan, took over the business as the credit his father secured sent the nation into breakneck industrialization. ...
Paul Warburg
J.P. Morgan's intervention in the Bank Panic of 1907 highlighted the need for a stronger banking system in America. Paul Warburg, a banker with Kuhn, Loeb, helped bring a modern central banking system to America. Warburg came to America from Germany, a nation long used to the concept of central banking. His writings and involvement in committees heavily influenced and encouraged the design of the Federal Reserve.
Amadeo P. Giannini
Before Amadeo Giannini, Wall Street banks were the picture of elitism. A regular person couldn't walk into the House of Morgan and open a bank account, any more than he could enter Buckingham palace and use the bedrooms. Giannini changed all this by making it his life's purpose to fight for the little guy. Giannini built his bank by soliciting depositors with advertisements and making all sizes of loans in his home state of California. What would one day become the Bank of America was nearly derailed by Wall Street when Giannini retired. ...
Charles Merrill
Heir to the work that Giavanni started, Charles E. Merrill had already built a successful investment banking business from scratch and was in semi-retirement when the firm E.A. Pierce and Co. asked him to run their firm. Merrill agreed, provided that his name was added to the company's and that he be given firm control over the company's direction. He took the new opportunity to try out his ideas of "people's capitalism," a concept that he had spent his life building ....