Banks perform a necessary function but, if all they do is reward greed, the societies that host them will not benefit.
Banking in one form or another has been around for thousands of years but modern banking became prominent in the Quattrocento, when Northern Italian bankers perfected a number of ideas necessary for modern banking, including double-entry bookkeeping.
The name “bank” comes from banca, Italian for the benches or tables where the bankers worked. If someone was…
