Event

Britains oldest merchant bank, founded in 1762 by Francis Baring. The bank financed the Louisiana Pu...

The failure of Continental Illinois National Bank in 1984 was the largest bank failure in US history...

The largest bank failure in US history. Washington Mutual, a Seattle based savings and loan, failed ...

The first British bank run in 150 years. Northern Rock, a building society turned bank based in Newc...

IndyMac Bank, a Pasadena based mortgage lender, failed on July 11, 2008, the fourth largest bank fai...

The Diners Club card, launched in 1950, was the first universal charge card. Founded by Frank McNama...

The first ATM was installed at a Barclays Bank branch in Enfield, London, on June 27, 1967. Invented...

Stanford Federal Credit Union launched the first internet banking service in 1994. Security First Ne...

Drexel Burnham Lambert was a Wall Street investment bank that pioneered the junk bond market under M...

Bear Stearns, founded in 1923, was the fifth largest investment bank in the US. The firm was known f...

Long-Term Capital Management was a hedge fund that operated like a bank, borrowing over 100 billion ...

In February 2001, Turkey experienced a severe banking crisis. The Turkish lira was floated and lost ...

Greek banks were at the center of the Greek debt crisis. Greek banks held large amounts of Greek gov...

The concept of using property as collateral for loans dates to ancient Rome, but modern mortgage sys...

Modern insurance began at Lloyds Coffee House in London around 1688, where merchants, ship owners, a...

The shadow banking system refers to non bank financial intermediaries that perform bank like functio...

The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 deregulated the US banking...

The Basel Accords are international banking regulations setting minimum capital requirements. Basel ...

The concept of compound interest, where interest is charged on accumulated interest, was known to an...

The concept of checking accounts, where depositors can write instructions to their bank to transfer ...

Western Union introduced the first electronic money transfer in 1872 using the telegraph network. A ...

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a global bank founded in 1972 by Pakistani financi...

Danske Banks Estonia branch was at the center of one of the largest money laundering scandals in his...

The Treasury Federal Reserve Accord of 1951 established the operational independence of the Federal ...

See related entry on Volcker Shock. Paul Volcker became Fed Chairman in August 1979 with inflation a...

The first savings bank was founded in Hamburg in 1778, designed to encourage thrift among working pe...

The negotiable certificate of deposit was introduced by First National City Bank of New York, later ...

The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s resulted from a combination of deregulation...

Sweden experienced a severe banking crisis in the early 1990s after a real estate and credit boom. B...

In March 2013, Cyprus implemented an unprecedented bail in, forcing depositors in Cypriot banks to c...

The First National Bank of Seattle issued the first debit card in 1978. Unlike credit cards, debit c...

The Unified Payments Interface was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India in April 2...

The concept that some financial institutions are so large and interconnected that their failure woul...

The criticism that major banks were not prosecuted for financial crisis crimes because they were too...

The shift from branch based banking to digital and mobile banking transformed the industry. Neobanks...

Open banking requires banks to share customer financial data with third parties with customer consen...

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable asset, usually the US dollar. Tether, USDC, and ...

On March 6, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt declared a national bank holiday, closing all banks f...

The Hunt brothers attempt to corner the silver market collapsed on March 27, 1980, known as Silver T...

Postal banking, where post offices offer savings accounts and basic financial services, was pioneere...

Financial technology companies disrupted traditional banking starting around 2010. Payment companies...

Central bank digital currencies are digital forms of central bank money. The Peoples Bank of China l...

Islamic banking grew from modest beginnings in the 1970s to a 4 trillion industry. Islamic banks pro...

The Nordic banking crisis of the early 1990s affected Sweden, Norway, and Finland after real estate ...

After the Asian Financial Crisis hit South Korea in 1997, the government restructured the entire ban...

President Andrew Jacksons veto of the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1832 was ...

The Reichsbank, Germanys central bank, facilitated the hyperinflation of 1923 by printing money to f...

The Bank of United States failure on December 11, 1930, was a pivotal moment in the Great Depression...

The Panic of 1907 began when the Knickerbocker Trust Company, the third largest trust company in New...

The first bank clearing house was established in London around 1770. Bankers met daily at the Five B...

The Clearing House Interbank Payments System was established in 1970 as an electronic replacement fo...

TransferWise, founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann in 2011, pioneered transparent low cost...

Banking as a Service allows non bank companies to offer banking products through licensed banks. Baa...

Real time payment systems settle transactions in seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The UK Fa...

Paper money was invented in China during the Tang Dynasty around 800 AD and became government policy...

The 1MDB scandal involved the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund being looted of 4.5 billion. Goldman S...

Wells Fargo continued to face scandals after the 2016 fake accounts crisis. The bank was fined 3 bil...

From the late 19th century through the mid 20th century, community banks were the backbone of Americ...

The Automated Clearing House was established in 1972 by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. A...

The Federal Reserve launched FedNow in July 2023, providing instant payment services 24 hours a day,...

Credit unions and cooperative banks emerged in the 19th century as alternatives to commercial banks....

Bank resolution refers to the process of winding down a failing bank in an orderly manner. Before 20...

Basel III, agreed in December 2010, strengthened bank capital requirements in response to the 2008 c...

Signature Bank of New York failed on March 12, 2023, two days after Silicon Valley Bank. Signature h...

PayPal was founded in 1998 as Confinity by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek. The company ini...

Buy Now Pay Later services allow consumers to purchase items and pay in installments, usually withou...

M Pesa, launched by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007, was the worlds first successful mobile money service...

Scotlands free banking era from 1716 to 1845 is considered by some economists as a model of successf...

The Suffolk Bank of Boston established the first bank clearinghouse system in the United States in 1...

Bank stress tests were introduced as a key supervisory tool after the 2008 crisis. The Federal Reser...

Goldman Sachs went public on May 3, 1999 at 53 per share. The IPO valued the firm at 33 billion. Gol...

Contactless payment cards were first introduced in the US by JP Morgan Chase in 2007 using technolog...

Allied Irish Banks was one of Irelands largest banks. AIB and Bank of Ireland dominated Irish bankin...

Narrow banking is a proposal where banks would be required to back all deposits with central bank re...

Dexia, a Belgo French bank, failed in 2011 after passing European stress tests just months earlier. ...

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency challenged traditional banking by offering an alternative financial syste...

ING Direct launched in 1997 in Canada, revolutionizing retail banking. The bank offered high interes...

Icelands three major banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki, and Glitnir, collapsed in October 2008 within day...

Cyprus developed an outsized banking sector, with bank assets reaching 7 times GDP. Cypriot banks at...

The Immediate Payment Service was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India in 2010. IM...

Michigans wildcat banking era from 1837 to 1844 produced some of the most worthless banknotes in Ame...

Fractional reserve banking is the system where banks keep only a fraction of deposits as reserves, l...

Securitization, the process of bundling loans into tradable securities, began in 1970 when the Gover...

Venice was Europes banking center during the medieval period. Venetian bankers developed the bill of...

The 2023 banking crisis, which saw the failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Re...

The shift toward a cashless society accelerated during the COVID 19 pandemic. Sweden is the closest ...

Deposit insurance was first introduced in the United States through the Federal Deposit Insurance Ac...

Central bank communication has evolved dramatically. Before the 1990s, central banks were deliberate...

Green banking incorporates environmental considerations into lending and investment decisions. The E...

After Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western sanctions targeted the Russian banking s...