What is the oldest bank in the world?
List of oldest banks in continuous operation
Depending on the definition, the world's oldest bank is either Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena or Berenberg Bank. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was founded in its present form in 1624, but traces its history to a mount of piety founded in 1472. The Berenberg company was founded in 1590 and has operated continuously ever since with the same family as owners or major co-owners. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is today a large Italian retail bank, while Berenberg Bank is primarily involved in investment banking and private banking for wealthy customers; in any event Berenberg Bank is the world's oldest merchant bank or investment bank. The world's oldest central bank is the Sveriges Riksbank, which was founded in 1668.
The Bank of New York Mellon
The bank says it is the longest running bank in the United States, and whether it deserves this recognition is sometimes disputed by its rivals and also by some historians. The Bank of North America was chartered in 1781, and was absorbed by a series of other entities until it was acquired by Wells Fargo. Similarly, The Massachusetts Bank went through a series of acquisitions and ended up as part of Bank of America. The Bank of New York remained independent, absorbing other companies, until its merger with Mellon. There is no doubt that the BNY Mellon is at least the third oldest bank in the US.
History of banking
The first treasury to the Apollonian temple was built before the end of the 7th century BC. A treasury of the temple was constructed by the city of Siphnos during the 6th century.
Société Générale
Société Générale is one of the oldest banks in France. Founded in 1864, its original name was "Société Générale pour favoriser le développement du commerce et de l'industrie en France" ().
Western Australian Bank, York
The Western Australian Bank building in York is the third oldest surviving bank building in Western Australia and the oldest still in-use as a bank.
Berenberg family
The Berenberg family (Dutch for "bear mountain") was a Flemish-origined Hanseatic family of merchants, bankers and senators in Hamburg, with branches in London, Livorno and other European cities. The family was descended from the brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg from Antwerp, who came as Protestant refugees to the city-republic of Hamburg following the Fall of Antwerp in 1585 and who established what is now Berenberg Bank in Hamburg in 1590. The Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants and became involved in merchant banking in the 16th century. Having existed continuously since 1590, Berenberg Bank is the world's oldest surviving merchant bank.
Banque Raiffeisen
Banque Raiffeisen is a Luxembourgish banking and financial services company. Founded in 1926, it is one of the oldest banks in Luxembourg. The bank is independent from foreign shareholders. It is a member of the International Raiffeisen Union (IRU), which is an association of cooperatives based on the ideas of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen.
Central bank
Established by Dutch-Latvian Johan Palmstruch in 1668, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank) is often considered by many as the world's oldest central bank. However it lacked a central function before 1904 since it did not have a monopoly over issuing bank notes.
Anthroposophy
Around the world today are a number of banks, companies, charities, and schools for developing co-operative forms of business using Steiner's ideas about economic associations, aiming at harmonious and socially responsible roles in the world economy. The first anthroposophic bank was the "Gemeinschaftsbank für Leihen und Schenken" in Bochum, Germany, founded in 1974.
Socially responsible banks founded out of anthroposophy in the English-speaking world include Triodos Bank, founded in 1980 and active in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain and France.
Cultura Sparebank dates from 1982 when a group of Norwegian anthroposophists began an initiative for ethical banking but only began to operate as a savings bank in Norway in the late 90s.
La Nef in France and RSF Social Finance in San Francisco are other examples.
Borough Road
London South Bank University was established on Borough Road as the Borough Polytechnic Institute in 1892, soon after Borough Road College had moved. The associated National School of Bakery was founded two years later in 1894 and is now the oldest bakery school in the world. The Institute expanded and became the Polytechnic of the South Bank (1970), South Bank Polytechnic (1987), attaining university status as South Bank University in 1992, before adopting its current name in 2003. A bust of Joseph Lancaster, given by the Victorian philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, remains at the University.
Goldman Sachs
As a "Bulge Bracket" bank, it is one of the largest investment banking enterprises in the world. It is a primary dealer in the United States Treasury security market and more generally, a prominent market maker. The bank also owns Goldman Sachs Bank USA, a direct bank. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 and is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan with additional offices in other international financial centers.
Westpac
Westpac Banking Corporation, more commonly known as Westpac, is an Australian bank and financial-services provider headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney. Founded in 1817, Westpac is Australia’s first and oldest bank. It is one of Australia's "big four" banks. Its name is a portmanteau of "Western" and "Pacific".
The Daishi Bank
The Daishi Bank is the oldest Japanese bank founded in 1873 and located in Niigata city, Chūō, the business district of Tokyo.
The bank founder Shibusawa Eiichi was an important Japanese industrialist and for a certain period the bank served as a national bank.
Heilbronn
In 1849 was founded the Hoerner Bank, one of the oldest still functioning banks in Germany.
Joseph Hoare (MP)
Hoare was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, before becoming a Partner in Hoare's Bank in Lombard Street, London, the UK's oldest and world's fourth oldest bank, which was founded by his ancestor Richard Hoare. He married Anne Amelia Buxton, daughter of Charles Buxton and Martha Henning, in 1836, but they had no children before her death in 1843.
Bank of Finland
The Bank of Finland (, ) is the central bank of Finland. It is the fourth oldest central bank in the world.
Lloyds Banking Group
Bank of Scotland, which originated in the 17th century, is the second-oldest surviving UK bank after the Bank of England. In 2001, a wave of consolidations in the UK banking market led the former Halifax Building Societywhich originated in 1853to agree to a £10.8 billion merger with Bank of Scotland.
HSBC Sri Lanka
HSBC Sri Lanka is a banking and financial services company in Sri Lanka and a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC. It is the largest and the oldest bank in Sri Lanka. HSBC opened its doors in Sri Lanka in 1892, just 27 years after its first offices were established in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The company maintained an international outlook from the start, while its activities centered on trade finance.
Banco Nacional de Bolivia
Banco Nacional de Bolivia (abbreviated as BNB) "(English: National Bank of Bolivia)" is a Bolivian bank and financial institution headquartered in Sucre, Bolivia. Founded in 1871, it is one of Bolivia's oldest banks. It is also the country's second largest bank by total assets.
BBVA Francés
Founded on October 14, 1886, in Buenos Aires as "Banco Francés del Río de la Plata" (), it is the oldest private bank in Argentina. Its Beaux-Arts headquarters, designed by Jorge Bunge, were inaugurated in 1926.
Mauritius Commercial Bank
Mauritius Commercial Bank, founded in 1838, is the oldest and largest banking institution of Mauritius. It is also the oldest banking institution south of the Sahara and one of the oldest banks of the Commonwealth to have preserved its original name. MCB has a local network of 40 modern branches and 150 ATMs
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (), known as BMPS or just MPS, is an Italian bank. Tracing its history to a mount of piety founded in 1472 () and founded in its present form in 1624 (), it is the world's oldest or second oldest bank, depending on the definition, and the fourth largest Italian commercial and retail bank.
Baltimore Equitable Society
Baltimore Equitable Insurance, until 2003 was located at the original headquarters of the Eutaw Savings Bank, is a historic bank building located at Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Originally built as the headquarters for the Eutaw Savings Bank, it is a two-story building with brownstone front and brick sides. It was constructed in 1857 in the Italian Renaissance style. The Eutaw Savings Bank moved across the street in 1887 to what is now the Baltimore Grand, and the building was acquired by the Baltimore Equitable Society in 1889. Founded in 1794, the Baltimore Equitable Society is one of the oldest corporations in the city and the third-oldest fire insurance company in the United States.
N M Rothschild &amp; Sons
N M Rothschild & Sons Limited is a British multinational investment banking company controlled by the Rothschild family. It was founded in the City of London in 1811 and now serves as the British division of Rothschild & Co, a global firm with 57 offices around the world. It is the seventh oldest bank in continuous operation in the United Kingdom.
Bank
More modern banking can be traced to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, to the rich cities in the centre and north like Florence, Lucca, Siena, Venice and Genoa. The Bardi and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th-century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts of Europe. One of the most famous Italian banks was the Medici Bank, set up by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici in 1397. The earliest known state deposit bank, Banco di San Giorgio (Bank of St. George), was founded in 1407 at Genoa, Italy.
U.S. Bancorp
U.S. Bancorp operates under the second-oldest continuous national charter, originally Charter #24, granted in 1863 following the passage of the National Bank Act. Earlier charters have expired as banks were closed or acquired, raising U.S. Bank's charter number from #24 to #2. The oldest national charter, originally granted to the First National Bank of Philadelphia, is held by Wells Fargo, which it obtained upon its merger with Wachovia.
Bank of Saint George
The Bank of Saint George ( or informally as "Ufficio di San Giorgio" or "Banco") was a financial institution of the Republic of Genoa. It was founded in 1407 to consolidate the public debt, which had been escalating due to the war with Venice for trading and financial dominance. The Bank's primary mission was to facilitate the management of the San Giorgio shares ("luoghi"). It was one of the oldest chartered banks in Europe and of the world. The Bank's headquarters were at the Palazzo San Giorgio, which was built in the 13th century by order of Guglielmo Boccanegra, uncle of Simone Boccanegra, the first Doge of Genoa.
El Paso Bank
The El Paso Bank is a historic commercial building on White County Road 3, east of Arkansas Highway 5 in El Paso, Arkansas. It is a vernacular single-story brick structure, with a front-facing gable roof. Its front facade has a fixed-frame window across much of its width, and the main entrance set at an angle on the right corner. A porch extends across the front, with remnants of latticework supported by turned posts. Built in 1912, it is the oldest surviving commercial building in the small community.
BLC bank
BLC Bank shareholding structure is as follows:Established in 1921 and listed as the oldest bank in Lebanon.
Stadtsparkasse München
Stadtsparkasse München is one of the oldest banks in Germany founded in 1824.
Banking in Germany
Banking in Germany has a long history. From the 15th century, banking families such as Fugger, Welser and Hochstetter were international mercantile bankers and venture capitalists. The oldest bank still in existence in Germany, Berenberg Bank, was founded by Dutch brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg in 1590, and is still owned by the Berenberg family.
341 George Street, Sydney
The Bank of New South Wales, the oldest corporation of its kind in Australia was founded in Sydney in 1817 by a number of principal commercial men of that time who had come to the conclusion that a local financial institution was necessary to facilitate the transactions of the ever-growing trade of the young colony.
Gloucester Old Bank
The Gloucester Old Bank was a British bank that operated between 1716 and 1838. It was founded in 1716 by James Wood. The bank was said to have been the oldest private bank in Britain, having survived the financial consequences of the Napoleonic Wars when many other banks went out of business. The claim was wrong as both C. Hoare & Co and Child & Co. were founded earlier, it was, however, one of the oldest banks in Britain in the nineteenth century.
Bank Handlowy
Bank Handlowy (BHW) or Citi Handlowy is a Polish bank based in Warsaw, established in 1870. It is one of the oldest banks in Poland and Europe. It is the 10th largest bank in Poland in terms of assets, and 18th in terms of number of outlets.
Dedham Institution for Savings
Dedham Institution for Savings, also known as Dedham Savings, is one of the oldest still functioning American banks founded on 19 March 1831 and located in Dedham, Massachusetts. The Society in Dedham for Apprehending Horse Thieves has an account at the bank which is believed to be the oldest account in America.
The Bank of New York Mellon
Through its Bank of New York predecessor, it is one of the three oldest banking corporations in the United States, and among the oldest banks in the world, having been established in June 1784 by a group that included American Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Mellon had been founded in 1869 by the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, which included Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon.
Stockholms Auktionsverk
Stockholms Auktionsverk (Swedish for "Stockholm's Auction House"), founded in 1674 in Sweden, is the world's oldest auction house.
Byblos Port
Byblos Port is an ancient port in Byblos, Lebanon and is believed by the Lebanese to be oldest port in the world. Around 3000 BC, Byblos Port was the most important timber shipping center in the eastern Mediterranean. It was used by the Phoenicians to ship their local wine, Cedars of Lebanon and other wood to the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt to be used in tomb construction and shipbuilding.
Palazzo Salimbeni
Palazzo Salimbeni is a Gothic style urban palace located on the Piazza Salimbeni, just off Via Banchi di Sopra in the Terzo di Camollia of the city of Siena, region of Tuscany, Italy. The building, associated with an ancient mercantile family of Siena, currently houses the main offices of the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, one of the oldest banks in the world.
Nick Leeson
Nicholas William "Nick" Leeson (born 25 February 1967) is a former English derivatives broker famous for bringing down Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest merchant bank, into bankruptcy. A rogue trader who made fraudulent, unauthorised and speculative moves, his actions led directly to the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, for which he was sentenced to prison.
J. L. Hunter &quot;Red&quot; Rountree
J. L. Hunter "Red" Rountree (December 16, 1911, Brownwood, Texas – October 12, 2004, Springfield, Missouri), an American folk hero, is believed to have been the world's oldest active bank robber. On August 12, 2003, Rountree walked into the First American Bank in Abilene, Texas, to hand a large envelope to the teller marked "robbery." Moments later, Rountree sped off in a 1996 Buick Regal with $2,000.00 in small bills. He was arrested shortly thereafter when a witness wrote down his license number.
Amsterdam
The 17th century is considered Amsterdam's "Golden Age", during which it became the wealthiest city in the western world. Ships sailed from Amsterdam to the Baltic Sea, North America, and Africa, as well as present-day Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Brazil, forming the basis of a worldwide trading network. Amsterdam's merchants had the largest share in both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company. These companies acquired overseas possessions that later became Dutch colonies.
Amsterdam was Europe's most important point for the shipment of goods and was the leading Financial centre of the western world. In 1602, the Amsterdam office of the international trading Dutch East India Company became the world's first stock exchange by trading in its own shares. The Bank of Amsterdam started operations in 1609, acting as a full service bank for Dutch merchant bankers and as a reserve bank.
Banco do Brasil
Banco do Brasil S.A. () is the largest bank by assets in Brazil and all of Latin America. The bank, headquartered in Brasília, was founded in 1808 and is the oldest active bank in Brazil, even older than the country's central bank. It is also one of the oldest banks in continuous operation in the world.
Banco Etcheverría
Banco Etcheverría was a Spanish bank. It was the oldest bank in the Spanish financial system, and the 11th oldest surviving bank in the world, older by over half a century than the Bank of Spain itself. It was founded in Betanzos, A Coruña (Spain) in 1717 by Juan Etcheverry, a French businessman established in Galicia who also created a tanning factory.
OCBC Bank
In 1972, OCBC acquired Four Seas Communications Bank, the oldest surviving bank in Singapore. The bank had been founded in 1906 as the Sze Hai Tong Bank and its founders had targeted the Teochew community.
History of Genoa
In the 15th century were founded two of the first banks in the world: the Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, which was the oldest chartered bank in the world at its closure in 1805 and the Banca Carige, founded in 1483 as a mount of piety.
Stockholms Enskilda Bank
In some areas the bank became a pioneer of the 19th century. In 1857, Stockholms Enskilda Bank claimed to be the first bank in the world to employ women and in 1892, pensions schemes were proposed for the bank's staff.
Wegelin &amp; Co.
Founded by Caspar Zyli in 1741, the company was renamed Wegelin & Co. in 1893. The bank's legal name changed multiple times by incorporating the names of the senior personally liable partners. As of 2013, the bank's name was "Wegelin & Co. Privatbankiers, Gesellschafter Bruderer, Hummler, Tolle & Co." At the time of its closing, it was the oldest bank in Switzerland and the 13th oldest in the world.
Threadneedle Street
The London office of the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank, is located at No. 60.
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a major British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. The Group's history stems from the founding in 1695 by the Parliament of Scotland of the Bank of Scotland, which is the second oldest bank in the United Kingdom. The Group's headquarters is located at 25 Gresham Street in the City of London and its registered office is on The Mound in Edinburgh. Lloyds Banking Group's activities are organised into: Retail Banking (including Mortgages and Sole Traders); Commercial; Life, Pensions & Insurance; and Wealth & International. Lloyds' has extensive overseas operations in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Cattle Bank
The Cattle Bank is a historic bank building located at 102 E. University Ave. in Champaign, Illinois. Built in 1856, it is the oldest commercial building in Champaign. It opened as a branch of the Grand Prairie Bank, Urbana's first bank. Champaign was the southern terminus of a railroad line to Chicago, so cattle raisers from the surrounding area drove their cattle to Champaign to ship them to the Chicago market. The Cattle Bank provided banking and loan services to these cattlemen.
Château de Brest
The Château de Brest is a castle in Brest, Finistère, France. The oldest monument in the town, it is located at the mouth of the river Penfeld at the heart of the roadstead of Brest, one of the largest roadsteads in the world. From the Roman castellum to Vauban's citadel, the site has over 1700 years of history, holding right up to the present day its original role as a military fortress and a strategic location of the highest importance. It is thus the oldest castle in the world still in use, and was classified as a monument historique on 21 March 1923 .
WSFS Bank
Serving the Delaware Valley since 1832, WSFS Bank is one of the ten oldest banks in the United States continuously operating under the same name.
Georgia Railroad and Banking Company
The Georgia Railroad Freight Depot, designed by architect Max Corput, was completed in 1869 and is the oldest building in Downtown Atlanta. The company was later re-chartered as the Georgia Railroad Bank, then a subsidiary of the First Railroad and Banking Company, which eventually opened banks in Atlanta under the name of First Georgia Bank. The banking operations were merged with First Union in 1986 and First Union subsequently merged with Wachovia Corporation (now Wells Fargo).
State Street Corporation
State Street Corporation is an American financial services and bank holding company headquartered at One Lincoln Street in Boston with operations worldwide. It is the 2nd United States bank on the list of oldest banks in continuous operation; its predecessor, Union Bank, was founded in 1792. State Street is ranked 15th on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets. It is one of the largest asset management companies in the world with US$2.78 trillion under management and US$33.12 trillion under custody and administration. It is the largest custodian bank in the world.
National bank
Bulgarian national bank was founded on 25.01.1879 and it is the 13 oldest central bank in the world. Its headquarter is in Sofia. BNB is an independent institution responsible for the issuance of national currency (the Bulgarian lev) and maintenance of the bank system's stability. The bank has a key role in Bulgarian economy. Since 1.01.2007 the bank is a member of European system of central banks. The governor of BNB is a member of General Assembly of European central bank.
The bank has three departments:
- Issue Department - responsible to maintain the full foreign exchange cover of the total amount of monetary liabilities i.s. responsible for issuance of national currency;
-Banking department - in case of system risk, this department performs the lender of last resort function. This department performs the function of a monetary board, introduced in Bg, since 1997.
- Supervision Department - performs the supervision of the bank system.
Banque Internationale à Luxembourg
Banque Internationale à Luxembourg S.A. (BIL) is a Luxembourgish bank. It is the oldest private bank in Luxembourg. The bank is owned by Legend Holdings (89.936%) and the Luxembourg government (9.993%).
Bank of Stockton
Bank of Stockton is a community bank founded in 1867 and headquartered in Stockton, California. This 150+ year old bank is one of the largest community banks in San Joaquin County. Bank of Stockton has 19 branches, in 16 cities, throughout 9 counties in contiguous markets in Northern California. Bank of Stockton is California’s oldest bank still operating under its original charter.
Kitsap Bank
Kitsap Bank is a community bank headquartered in Port Orchard, Washington in the United States. Established in 1908, it is the oldest and largest locally owned bank in Washington state.
Cosmos Bank
The Cosmos Co-operative Bank Ltd. (Cosmos Bank), established in 1906, is one of the oldest Urban Co-operative Banks in India. Cosmos Bank celebrated its centenary on 18 January 2006. It is one of the first co-operative banks in the country to implement Core Banking System (CBS) across the entire network of its then 140 service outlets using Finacle-Infosys Core Banking Software. It also received an authorized dealer (AD) license from the Reserve Bank of India to become the third co-operative bank in India to have such a license in thirty years.
Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland
The Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, now trading as the Chartered Banker Institute, was established in 1875 and is the oldest professional banking institute in the world and the only remaining banking institute in the UK. It aims to help rebuild public confidence in banks and bankers by developing and embedding high ethical, professional and technical standards. In 2011, the Institute led the establishment of the Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board (CB:PSB) an initiative supported by eight UK banks and covering 350,000 individuals working in the banking sector. The CB:PSB develops and supports the implementation of industry-wide professional standards which set out the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours expected of all UK bankers.
CHB Bank
CHB Bank(조흥은행, Chohung Bank) was a bank company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was one of the oldest banks in Korea, having been established on February 1, 1897. CHB merged with Shinhan Bank in April 2006.
History of banking
Banking as an archaic activity (or quasi-banking) is thought to have begun at various times, during a period as early as the latter part of the 4th millennium BCE, to within the 4th to 3rd millennia BCE
Prior to the reign of Sargon I of Akkad (2335–2280 BCE) the occurrence of trade was limited to the internal boundaries of each city-state of Babylon and the temple located at the centre of economic activity there-in; trade at the time for citizens external to the city was forbidden.
History of banking
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. The most famous Italian bank was the Medici bank, established by Giovanni Medici in 1397. The oldest bank still in existence is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, headquartered in Siena, Italy, which has been operating continuously since 1472.
CoreStates Financial Corporation
The Philadelphia National Bank was neither the oldest nor the most aggressive of the big banks headquartered in the nation's birthplace for most of the city's history. That distinction went to the First Pennsylvania Bank, the "Pennsy Company." While founded as an insurance company in 1809 (chartered 1812), it traces back to an even earlier banking dynasty. the Bank of North America was chartered in 1781 by the Continental Congress as America's first bank. It went through a number of charter changes and minor upheavals until merging with the Commercial Trust Company to form 1923's Bank of North America and Trust Company. That didn't survive long; by the 1870s, 1st Pennsy had transitioned to banking in the 1870s, and it bought the old bank in 1929, and shortly thereafter renamed itself the Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trust. It was led in the twentieth century by an increasingly ambitious and risk-taking board of directors. Another merger with First National Nank in 1955 brought another name change, prepending "First," and the FIrst National branch at 315 Chestnut Street was maintained until the Wells Fargo period. Serendipitously, 315 Chestnut is next door to the original location of the Bank of North AMerica at 305 Chestnut.
JPMorgan Chase
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City. JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, and is ranked by S&P Global as the sixth largest bank in the world by total assets , to the amount of $2.534 trillion. It is the world's most valuable bank by market capitalization.
As a "Bulge Bracket" bank, it is a major provider of various investment banking and financial services. It is one of America's Big Four banks, along with Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. JPMorgan Chase is considered to be a universal bank and a custodian bank. The J.P. Morgan brand, historically known as Morgan, is used by the investment banking, asset management, private banking, private wealth management, and treasury & securities services divisions. Fiduciary activity within private banking and private wealth management is done under the aegis of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.—the actual trustee. The Chase brand is used for credit card services in the United States and Canada, the bank's retail banking activities in the United States, and commercial banking. Both the retail and commercial bank and the bank's corporate headquarters are located at 270 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with J.P. Morgan & Co.
Citizens &amp; Southern National Bank
A former Charleston, SC, C&S location, Citizens and Southern National Bank of South Carolina, is the second oldest bank building in the U.S. and possibly the oldest still used as a bank. Constructed in 1798 as the Bank of South Carolina it later became the home for the Charleston Library Society (1835), then belonged to the Charleston Chamber of Commerce (1914), and finally became a bank again when C&S purchased the two-story building in 1966. Located at 50 Broad Street, it is now a private office building.
Bank of Florence Museum
The Bank of Florence was an early wildcat bank located at 8502 North 30th Street in Florence, Nebraska Territory. After originally opening in the 1850s, it closed and reopened in 1904. Today the building that housed the bank is the Bank of Florence Museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is the oldest building in Omaha, Nebraska.
BSI Ltd
BSI had been the oldest bank in the Swiss canton of Ticino until its integration into EFG Bank and the following renaming into EFG, which took place in 2017. Founded in 1873 in Lugano as the Banca della Svizzera Italiana, BSI was an institution that specialises in asset management and related services for private and institutional clients. In 1998, the bank became part of the Italian Generali group, one of the world's biggest insurance companies. In July 2014, Generali sold BSI to BTG Pactual for $1.7 billion USD, a deal that CEO of the bank, André Esteves stated would make BTG Pactual a “global player in the asset management arena.”
Jemmy Wood
Wood inherited the bank from his grandfather who had founded it in 1716. The bank was said to have been one of the oldest private banks in Britain, having survived the financial consequences of the Napoleonic Wars when many other banks went out of business. It operated from Wood's drapery shop in Westgate Street, Gloucester and Wood's practice was to offer no interest on deposits of less than one year. The whole bank was believed to have consisted of just Wood and two clerks. On the counter were nailed counterfeit coins as a warning to customers not to try and pass them off on the bank. The bank was taken over by the "County of Gloucestershire Banking Company" in 1838, which eventually became part of "Lloyds Bank" in 1897.
Purwokerto
Located in the city center, Bank BRI Museum was built and dedicated to the Bank BRI's founder, R.A. Wiriatmadja. Formerly named as De Purwakertosche Hulp-en Spaar Bank der Inlandsche Bestuur Ambtenaren in 1895, now Bank BRI is one of the largest bank in the nation, as well as the oldest in the nation. Displays a lot of collections of coin and money from the VOC era until the present time.
Hugh McColl
In April 1998, under McColl's direction, NationsBank bought San Francisco-based BankAmerica. Although NationsBank was the nominal survivor and the merged bank was (and still is) headquartered in Charlotte, the merged company took the better-known name of Bank of America. Among other later acquisitions, Bank of America in 2004 acquired FleetBoston Financial, thus ultimately holding the country's oldest bank charter (1784).
Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten
The Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (, previously the "Bank of the Netherlands Antilles") is the central bank for the Netherlands Antillean guilder and administers the monetary policy of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The bank dates to 1828 making it the oldest central bank in the Americas.
Crédit Lyonnais
Founded in July 6, 1863 in Lyon by Henri Germain, Crédit Lyonnais was the biggest bank in the world by 1900. It was nationalised in 1945, as was most of the banking sector in France after the war.
Sparkasse Schwyz
Sparkasse Schwyz AG is a regional savings bank in the Swiss Canton of Schwyz, founded in 1812 and thus one of the oldest banks in continuous operation in the world. The bank has offices in Schwyz, Brunnen, Goldau and Küssnacht am Rigi. As of 2008, it had 61 employees. It is associated with RBA-Holding.
Bank
Banking in its modern sense evolved in the 14th century in the prosperous cities of Renaissance Italy but in many ways was a continuation of ideas and concepts of credit and lending that had their roots in the ancient world. In the history of banking, a number of banking dynasties – notably, the Medicis, the Fuggers, the Welsers, the Berenbergs, and the Rothschilds – have played a central role over many centuries. The oldest existing retail bank is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, while the oldest existing merchant bank is Berenberg Bank.
Fabrizio Viola
Fabrizio Viola was the chief executive officer and general manager of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world. He was later employed by Banca Popolare di Vicenza as CEO and sister bank Veneto Banca as director.
Banking in Italy
The origins of modern banking can be traced to medieval and early Italian Renaissance, to the rich cities in the north like Florence, Lucca, Siena, Venice and Genoa. The Bardi and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts of Europe. One of the most famous Italian banks was the Medici Bank, set up by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici in 1397. The earliest known state deposit bank, Banco di San Giorgio (Bank of St. George), was founded in 1407 at Genoa, Italy, while Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472, is the oldest surviving bank in the world. 
Unicredit is one of the largest bank in Europe by capitalization and Assicurazioni Generali is the seventh in the world by total assets
Itaú Corpbanca
In 1871, a group of neighbors from Concepción led by Aníbal Pinto, who would later become President of Chile, drew up the by-laws of Banco de Concepción. The Bank began business on October 6, 1871 and has continued operating uninterrupted until today, which makes it the oldest bank in Chile. Following nationalization of private banking in 1971, the ownership of the Bank changed and came under the control of CORFO. That same year, Banco de Concepción acquired the local interests of Banco Francés and Italiano, which provided the institution presence in Santiago. Later, in 1972, the bank purchased Banco de Chillán and, in 1975, Banco de Valdivia. In November 1975, CORFO sold shares to private businessmen who took control of the bank the following year. After a period of growth, in 1980 Banco de Concepción was redefined as a nationwide bank; it changed its name to Banco Concepción and moved its headquarters from Concepción to Santiago. In 1986 the National Mining Corporation (SONAMI) acquired the Bank and took special interest in financing small and medium mining projects, increased its capital and sold its riskier portfolio to the Central Bank. In late 1995, SONAMI sold the majority of its shareholding in the Bank to a group of investors led by Álvaro Saieh, through the holding company INFISA (now Corp Group). In 2014 the bank merged with Banco Itaú Chile, and was renamed to Itaú Corpbanca.
Merck family
The Merck family is a German family of industrialists and bankers, known for establishing the world's oldest pharmaceutical company Merck, its American former subsidiary Merck & Co. (MSD), which is now an independent company, as well as the Hamburg merchant bank H. J. Merck & Co. The family still owns the majority of the pharmaceutical company Merck.
Richard Hoare
Sir Richard Hoare (1648–6 January 1719) was the founder of C. Hoare & Co, the oldest extant bank in the United Kingdom.
First Nebraska Bank
First Nebraska Bank is a state-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Valley, Nebraska. Founded in 1885, First Nebraska Bank is one of the oldest banking companies in Nebraska, with over $259 million in assets as of December 31, 2012. The bank has ten branches in Nebraska, with locations in Arcadia, Bennet, Brainard, Columbus, Decatur, Emerson, Nebraska City, Stanton, Valley, and Weeping Water. Primary federal oversight for the bank is provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, while state oversight is provided by the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance.
Banknote Museum
The Banknote Museum of Alpha Bank is a museum located in Corfu, Greece. It showcases an almost complete collection of the Greek currency from 1822 to present, about 2000 items. It includes the first treasury bonds issued by the newly liberated Greek State in 1822 until the replacement of the drachma by the euro in 2002. It also includes sketches essays and printing plates of Greek banknotes. One of its rarest holdings is the 1860 "colonata". The museum was established in 1981 by the Ionian Bank and it is housed at the former Ionian Bank building designed by Corfiote architect Ioannis Chronis in about 1840. In 2000 Ionian Bank merged with Alpha Bank and subsequently the Banknote Museum was renovated and was reopened in 2005. An additional exhibit hall was added showcasing "Ionian Bank Limited" which was a British venture and the first bank to operate in Greek territory. The museum collection is considered one of the most complete of its kind in the world.
Genoa
Genoa, which forms the southern corner of the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle of Northwest Italy, is one of the country's major economic centers. The city has hosted massive shipyards and steelworks since the 19th century, and its solid financial sector dates back to the Middle Ages. The Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, is among the oldest in the world and has played an important role in the city's prosperity since the middle of the 15th century. Today a number of leading Italian companies are based in the city, including Fincantieri, Selex ES, Ansaldo Energia, Ansaldo STS, Edoardo Raffinerie Garrone, Piaggio Aerospace, Mediterranean Shipping Company and Costa Cruises.
Fleet Street
C. Hoare & Co, England's oldest privately owned bank, has been operating in Fleet Street since 1672. Child & Co, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland, claims it is the oldest continuous banking establishment in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1580 and has been based at No.1 Fleet Street, adjacent to Temple Bar, since 1673. The law firm Freshfields moved to No. 65 Fleet Street in 1990.
Bank of Ireland
Bank of Ireland is the oldest bank in continuous operation (apart from 4 closures due to bank strikes, 1950, 1966, 1970, 1976) in Ireland.
List of oldest banks in continuous operation
This list of the oldest banks includes financial institutions in "continuous" operation, operating with the same legal identity without interruption since their establishment until the present time.
History of Wells Fargo
In 1960, Hellman engineered the merger of Wells Fargo Bank with American Trust Company, a large northern California retail-banking system and the second oldest financial institution in California, to form the Wells Fargo Bank & American Trust Company. Ransom M. Cook was president with Hellman as chairman. The name was again shortened to Wells Fargo Bank in 1962.
In 1964, H. Stephen Chase was elected president with Cook as chairman. This merger of California's two oldest banks created the 11th largest banking institution in the United States. Following the merger, Wells Fargo's involvement in international banking greatly accelerated. The company opened a Tokyo representative office and, eventually, additional branch offices in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Nassau, Bahamas, as well as representative offices in Mexico City, São Paulo, Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Singapore.
Bank of China
It was founded in 1912 by the Republican government to replace the "Daqing" Bank. It is the oldest bank in mainland China still in existence. From its establishment until 1942, it issued banknotes on behalf of the Government along with the "Big Four" banks of the period: the Farmers Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Central Bank of the Republic of China. Its headquarters are in Xicheng District, Beijing.
Laurence Street
In recent years, he was a Director and later Chairman of Fairfax Media and a Director of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world. He also held office as Australian and World President of the International Law Association, London of which he was a life Vice President.
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group (WBG) () is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and most well-known development bank in the world and is an observer at the United Nations Development Group. The bank is based in Washington, D.C. and provided around $61 billion in loans and assistance to "developing" and transition countries in the 2014 fiscal year. The bank's stated mission is to achieve the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity. Total lending as of 2015 for the last 10 years through Development Policy Financing was approximately $117 billion. Its five organizations are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The first two are sometimes collectively (and confusingly) referred to as the World Bank.
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Bank was one of the oldest banks in the UK, tracing its establishment to Taylors and Lloyds founded in 1765 in Birmingham by button maker John Taylor and iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd II. Through a series of mergers, Lloyds became one of the Big Four banks in the UK.
Ionian Bank
A "decree of the Eminent Senate of the Commonwealth of Ionian Islands" established the Ionian State Bank in 1839, to finance trade between the Ionian Islands (a British protectorate), and Great Britain. This made the bank the oldest in Greece. The bank received a 20-year grant of the exclusive privilege of issuing and circulating banknotes for the Ionian Islands. The bank soon changed its name to Ionian Bank (IB), and initially only operated in the Ionian Islands, opening branches in Corfu, Aante and Kefalonia the following year. In 1845, a year after the bank received a UK Royal Charter, it established agencies in Athens and Patras, and appointed special agents in Venice and Trieste.
Banco Internacional de São Tomé e Príncipe
Banco Internacional de São Tomé e Príncipe (BISTP) is the largest and oldest commercial bank in São Tomé and Príncipe. It consists of a head office and 14 branches. Its name is literally the International Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Warburg family
The family later established itself in Altona, near Hamburg in the 17th century, after the Thirty Years' War, and it was in Hamburg that M. M. Warburg & Co. was established in 1798, among the oldest still existing investment banks in the world. Other banks created by members of the family include: M.M.Warburg & Co., Warburg Pincus, S. G. Warburg & Co. (becoming UBS Warburg).
Banco di Santo Spirito
The Bank of the Holy Spirit () was a bank founded by Pope Paul V on December 13, 1605. The Bank was the first national bank in Europe (as the bank of the Papal States), the first public deposit bank in Rome, and the oldest continuously-operating bank in Rome until its merger in 1992.
Child &amp; Co.
Child & Co. is the oldest bank in the United Kingdom & a formerly independent private bank that is now owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The Royal Bank of Scotland incorporating Child & Co., Bankers is based at 1 Fleet Street in the City of London. It is authorised as a brand of The Royal Bank of Scotland by the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Fractional-reserve banking
The Swedish Riksbank was the world's first central bank, created in 1668. Many nations followed suit in the late 1600s to establish central banks which were given the legal power to set the reserve requirement, and to specify the form in which such assets (called the monetary base) are required to be held. In order to mitigate the impact of bank failures and financial crises, central banks were also granted the authority to centralize banks' storage of precious metal reserves, thereby facilitating transfer of gold in the event of bank runs, to regulate commercial banks, impose reserve requirements, and to act as lender-of-last-resort if any bank faced a bank run. The emergence of central banks reduced the risk of bank runs which is inherent in fractional-reserve banking, and it allowed the practice to continue as it does today.
Peter Augustus Jay (lawyer)
In 1814, Jay and his father were both elected members of the American Antiquarian Society.
Together with financier Thomas Eddy, Peter Augustus Jay also helped organize and found New York's earliest savings bank, the now defunct New York Bank for Savings in 1816 (thereby contributing to the establishment of the New York State savings bank system). In 1828, he helped found the New York Law Institute, which today is the oldest law library in New York City. Jay was President of New York Hospital (1827–1833), Chairman of the Board of Trustees, King's College and President of the New York Historical Society (1840–1842).
History of banking
The history of banking began with the first prototype banks which were the merchants of the world, who made grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This was around 2000 BC in Assyria, India and Sumeria. Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples made loans, while accepting deposits and performing the change of money. Archaeology from this period in ancient China and India also shows evidence of money lending.
Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank
, abbreviated as , was one of the largest banks in the world during the latter half of the 20th century. Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was created in 1971 by a consortium of two banks: Dai-Ichi Bank, Japan's oldest bank, and Nippon Kangyo Bank, a state financial institution that granted long-term loans to industry and agriculture.