title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe Holding Co. is a publicly held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva sample that is laboratory analysed, using single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping, to generate reports relating to the customer's ancestry and genetic predispositions to health-related topics. The company's name is derived from the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a wild-type human cell.


title: 23andMe

text: The company had a previously fraught relationship with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to its genetic health tests; as of October 2015, DNA tests ordered in the US include a revised health component, per FDA approval. 23andMe has been selling a product with both ancestry and health-related components in Canada since October 2014, and in the UK since December 2014.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2007, 23andMe became the first company to begin offering autosomal DNA testing for ancestry, which all other major companies now use. Its saliva-based direct-to-consumer genetic testing business was named "Invention of the Year" by "Time" in 2008.


title: 23andMe

text: Linda Avey, Paul Cusenza and Anne Wojcicki founded 23andMe in 2006 to offer genetic testing and interpretation to individuals. Investment documents from 2007 also suggest that 23andMe hoped to develop a database to pursue research efforts. In 2007, Google invested $3.9 million in the company, along with Genentech, New Enterprise Associates, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. Wojcicki and Google co-founder Sergey Brin were married at the time.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2007, Cusenza left to join Nodal Exchange as CEO the following year. Avey left in 2009 and co-founded Curious, Inc. in 2011.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2012, 23andMe raised $50 million in a Series D venture round, almost doubling its capital of $52.6 million. In 2015, 23andMe raised $115 million in a Series E offering, increasing capital to $241 million.


title: 23andMe

text: In June 2017, 23andMe created a brand marketing advertisement featuring Gru from "Despicable Me". In 2018, the company launched advertisements narrated by Warren Buffett.


title: 23andMe

text: In September 2017, it was rumored the company was raising another $200 million with a $1.5 billion valuation. As of that time, the company had raised $230 million since its inception. Afterwards, it was reported the company raised $250 million, at a $1.75 billion valuation.


title: 23andMe

text: On July 25, 2018, 23andMe announced it a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline to allow the pharmaceutical company to use test results from 5 million customers to design new drugs. GlaxoSmithKline invested $300 million in the company. In January 2022, this partnership was extended until July 2023 with an additional $50 million payment from GlaxoSmithKline.


title: 23andMe

text: In July 2020, 23andMe and GlaxoSmithKline announced their partnership's first clinical trial: a joint asset being co-developed by the two companies for cancer treatment.


title: 23andMe

text: In December 2020, the company raised around $82.5 million in a series F round, bringing the total raised over the years to over $850M. The post-money valuation was not reported.


title: 23andMe

text: In February 2021, the company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Sir Richard Branson's special-purpose acquisition company, VG Acquisition Corp, in a $3.5 billion transaction.


title: 23andMe

text: In June 2021, the company completed the merger with VG Acquisition Corp. The combined company was renamed to 23andMe Holding Co. and began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on June 17, 2021 under the ticker symbol “ME”.


title: 23andMe

text: In October 2021, 23andMe announced that it would acquire Lemonaid Health, a telehealth company, for $400 million with the deal closing in November.


title: 23andMe

text: The new genetic testing service and ability to map significant portions of the genome has raised controversial questions, including whether the results can be interpreted meaningfully and whether they will lead to genetic discrimination. The regulatory environment for genetic testing companies has been uncertain, and anticipated risk-based regulation catering for different types of genetic tests has not yet materialized.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2008, the states of New York and California each provided notice to 23andMe and similar companies, that they needed to obtain a CLIA license in order to sell tests in those states. By August 2008, 23andMe had received licenses that allow them to continue to do business in California.


title: 23andMe

text: According to Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe has been in dialogue with the FDA since 2008. In 2010, the FDA notified several genetic testing companies, including 23andMe, that their genetic tests are considered medical devices and federal approval is required to market them; a similar letter was sent to Illumina, which makes the instruments and chips used by 23andMe in providing its service. 23andMe first submitted applications for FDA clearance in July and September 2012.


title: 23andMe

text: In November 2013, the FDA published guidance on how it classified genetic analysis and testing services offered by companies using instruments and chips labelled for "research use only" and instruments and chips that had been approved for clinical use.


title: 23andMe

text: At around the same time, after not hearing from 23andMe for six months, the FDA ordered 23andMe to stop marketing its saliva collection kit and personal genome service (PGS), as 23andMe had not demonstrated that they have "analytically or clinically validated the PGS for its intended uses" and that the "FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device". , 23andMe had stopped all advertisements for its PGS test but is still selling the product. , 23andMe was selling only raw genetic data and ancestry-related results.


title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe publicly responded to media reports on November 25, 2013, stating, "We recognize that we have not met the FDA's expectations regarding timeline and communication regarding our submission. Our relationship with the FDA is extremely important to us and we are committed to fully engaging with them to address their concerns." CEO Anne Wojcicki subsequently posted an update on the 23andMe website, stating: "This is new territory for both 23andMe and the FDA. This makes the regulatory process with the FDA important because the work we are doing with the agency will help lay the groundwork for what other companies in this new industry do in the future. It will also provide important reassurance to the public that the process and science behind the service meet the rigorous standards required by those entrusted with the public's safety."


title: 23andMe

text: On December 5, 2013, 23andMe announced that it had suspended health-related genetic tests for customers who purchased the test from November 22, 2013 in order to comply with the FDA warning letter, while undergoing regulatory review.


title: 23andMe

text: In May 2014, it was reported that 23andMe was exploring alternative locations abroad, including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, in which to offer its full genetic testing service. 23andMe had been selling a product with both ancestry and health-related components in Canada since October 2014, and in the UK since December 2014.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2014, 23andMe submitted a 510(k) application to the FDA to market a carrier test for Bloom syndrome, which included data showing that 23andme's results were consistent and reliable and that the saliva collection kit and instructions were easy enough for people to use without making mistakes that might affect their results, and included citations to the scientific literature showing that the specific tests that 23andMe offered were associated with Blooms. The FDA cleared the test in February 2015; in the clearance notice, the FDA said that it would not require similar applications for other carrier tests from 23andMe. The FDA sent further clarification about regulation of the test to 23andMe on October 1, 2015.


title: 23andMe

text: On October 21, 2015, 23andMe announced that it would begin marketing carrier tests in the US again. Wojcicki said, "There was part of us that didn’t understand how the regulatory environment works" in regards to the distributed laboratory regulatory functions of FDA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS).


title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe submitted a "de novo" application to the FDA to market tests that provide people with information about whether they have gene mutations or alleles that put them at risk for getting or having certain diseases; the applications included data showing that 23andMe's results were consistent and reliable. In April 2017, the FDA approved the applications for ten tests: late-onset Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, celiac disease, hereditary thrombophilia, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, early-onset of dystonia, factor XI deficiency, and Gaucher's disease. The FDA also said that it intended to exempt further 23andMe genetic risk tests from the needing 510(k) applications, and it clarified that it was only approving genetic risk tests, not diagnostic tests.


title: 23andMe

text: In March 2018, the FDA approved another "de novo" application from the company, this one for a DTC test for three specific "BRCA" mutations that are the most common "BRCA" mutations in people of Ashkenazi descent; they are not however the most common "BRCA" mutations in the general population, and the test is only for three of the approximately 1,000 known mutations. These mutations increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women, and the risk of breast and prostate cancer in men.


title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe began offering direct-to-consumer genetic testing in November 2007. Customers provide a saliva testing sample that is partially single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyped and results are posted online. In 2008, when the company was offering estimates of "predisposition for more than 90 traits and conditions ranging from baldness to blindness", "Time" magazine named the product "Invention of the Year".


title: 23andMe

text: After the sample is received by the lab, the DNA is extracted from the saliva and amplified so that there is enough to be genotyped. The DNA is then cut into small pieces, and applied to a glass microarray chip, which has many microscopic beads applied to its surface. Each bead has a gene probe on it that matches the DNA of one of the many variants the company test for. If the sample has a match in the microarray, the sequences will hybridize, or bind together, letting researchers know that this variant is present in the customer's genome by a fluorescent label located on the probes. Tens of thousands of variants are tested out of the 10 to 30 million located in the entire genome. These matches are then compiled into a report that is supplied to the customer, allowing them to know if the variants associated with certain diseases, such as Parkinson's, celiac and Alzheimer's, are present in their own genome.


title: 23andMe

text: Uninterpreted raw genetic data may be downloaded by customers. This provides customers with the ability to choose one of the 23 chromosomes, as well as mitochondrial DNA, and see which base is located in certain positions in genes, and see how these compare to other common variants. Customers who bought tests with an ancestry-related component have online access to genealogical DNA test results and tools, including a relative-matching database. Customers can also view their mitochondrial haplogroup (maternal) and, if they are male or a relative shared a patriline that has also been tested, Y chromosome haplogroup (paternal). US customers who bought tests with a health-related component and received health-related results before November 22, 2013 have online access to an assessment of inherited traits and genetic disorder risks. Health-related results for US customers who purchased the test from November 22, 2013 were suspended until late 2015 while undergoing an FDA regulatory review. Customers who bought tests from 23andMe's Canadian and UK locations have access to some, but not all, health-related results.


title: 23andMe

text: As of February 2018, 23andMe has genotyped over 3,000,000 individuals. FDA marketing restrictions reduced customer growth rates.


title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe is commonly used for donor conceived people to find their biological siblings and in some cases their sperm or egg donor.


title: 23andMe

text: In late 2009, 23andMe split its genotyping service into three products with different prices: an Ancestry Edition, a Health edition, and a Complete Edition. This decision was reversed a year later, when the different products were recombined. In late 2010, the company introduced a monthly subscription fee for updates based on new medical research findings. The subscription model proved unpopular with customers and was eliminated in mid-2012.


title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe only sold raw genetic data and ancestry-related results in the US due to FDA restrictions from November 22, 2013 until October 21, 2015, when it announced that it would resume providing health information in the form of carrier status and wellness reports with FDA approval. Wojcicki said they still plan to report on disease risk, subject to future FDA approval.


title: 23andMe

text: The price of the full direct-to-consumer testing service in the US reduced from $999 in 2007 to $399 in 2008 and to $99 in 2012, and was effectively being sold as a loss leader in order to build a valuable customer database. In October 2015, the US price was raised to $199. In September 2016, an ancestry-only version was once again offered at a lower price of $99 with an option to upgrade to include the health component for an additional $125 later.


title: 23andMe

text: The initial price of the product sold in Canada from October 2014, which includes health-related results, was . The initial price of the product sold in the UK from December 2014, which includes health-related results, was £125.


title: 23andMe

text: In February 2018, 23andMe announced that its ancestry reporting would tell people what country they were from, not just what region, and increased the number of regions by 120. Like other companies, it still lacked data about Asia and Africa, which the African Genetics Program (launched in October 2016 with a grant from the US National Institutes of Health) will rectify by recruiting sub-Saharan Africans to increase the genomic data on racial and ethnic minorities. Building off of the African Genetics Program, the Global Genetics Program was also announced in February 2018. This program aims to increase the genomic data of 61 underrepresented countries in their database by providing free tests to individuals that have all 4 grandparents from one of the countries. In April 2018, 23andMe announced the Populations Collaboration Program, which sets up formal collaborations between the company and researchers that are investigating underrepresented countries.


title: 23andMe

text: Since October 1, 2020, the company has offered a new service called "23andMe+", priced at $29/year, for the customers of the "Health + Ancestry" service, who completed genotyping on version 5 of the microarray chip used by the company. The new service makes available additional reports on health and pharmacogenetics, and commits to provide ongoing new reports and features.


title: 23andMe

text: At the end of 2021 23andMe acquired leading digital healthcare company Lemonaid Health for $400m to "...give patients and healthcare providers better information about health risks and treatment". Paul Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Lemonaid Health became COO of the 23andMe consumer business.


title: 23andMe

text: Up until 2010, Illumina only sold instruments that were labeled "for research use only"; in early 2010, Illumina obtained FDA approval for its BeadXpress system to be used in clinical tests.


title: 23andMe

text: In June 2020, 23andMe published results from a study that claimed that people with type O blood may be at lower risk of catching COVID-19. Out of more than 750,000 participants, those with type O blood were 9–18% less likely to contract the virus, while those who had been exposed were 13–26% less likely to test positive. The study is ongoing and has not been peer-reviewed.


title: 23andMe

text: Some customers comparing 23andMe ancestry results to other genomic and ancestry testing companies have received differing results, possibly due to human error, or the differing analysis of the extracted DNA due to overrepresentation of one country or region over another in the database. Ancestry results are based on the amount of confidence the company has that the DNA is from a specific region, leading to both specific countries when the confidence is high, and broad regions when the confidence is low. This can lead to surprising results due to specific countries getting masked by low confidence in the DNA. In August 2018, the company said it was broadening its coverage of Africa and East Asia. The possibility of false positives also adds to customer confusion and unnecessary concerns when interpreting results.


title: 23andMe

text: 2019 research from the University of Southampton used the company as an example of direct-to-consumer tests that emphasize "breadth over detail", in one case only checking a few variants of a particular cancer-causing gene instead of the possible thousands, and said that such tests were generally unreliable.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2019, identical twin sisters Charlsie and Carly Agro both took DNA tests from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, and LivingDNA, and found that the results from one sister did not match the results of the other sister. While Charlsie's test resulted in 38% Italian, 28% Eastern European, 15% Balkan, around 3% Broadly European, 13% Others, and 2.6% French and German, Carly's test resulted in 37% Italian, 25% Eastern European, 14% Balkan, 13% Broadly European, and 12% Others. Carly's test did not detect French and German ancestry, while Charlsie's did. Carly's test did however discover Polish ancestry, under the Eastern European category, which came up undetected in Charlsie's results. Charlsie Agro had asked Mark Gerstein, a computational biologist from Yale University, to analyze both her and her twin sister's raw DNA data beforehand; his team stated that the results should be identical, as their DNA were "statistically the same". While the results were not identical, they were very similar to each other, which raised the question as to whether or not DNA ancestry tests are 100% accurate. Although the machines that process human DNA are highly accurate, errors can occur, and human errors can also cause unexpected results.


title: 23andMe

text: Questions have been raised since at least 2013 as to whether the company can obtain informed consent through its web-based interactions with people who want to submit samples for sequencing.


title: 23andMe

text: The company collects not only genetic and personal information from customers who order DNA tests, but also data about other web behavior information that 23andMe captures through the use of its website, products, software, cookies, and through its smartphone app. A combination of several individual policies within the terms of service and privacy policy (cookies, disclosure of aggregate data, targeted advertising) makes 23andMe a valuable data mine for third parties such as health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, advertising companies, biotechnology companies, law enforcement, or other interested parties. People may not actually be aware of how the company uses the data, and there are always risks of data breaches.


title: 23andMe

text: Depending on which state an individual resides in, 23andMe must follow that state's laws regarding privacy and disclosing information. Since 23andMe is not a medical provider, the company does not have to abide by standard privacy policies that must be followed at a doctor's office, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Research by Deloitte has shown that only 9% of consumers actually read the terms and conditions, and research from ProPrivacy concluded that only 1% of consumers read the policies, which suggests that consent to be included in research may have been given without full knowledge of the permissions being given. In addition, 23andMe's privacy policy can be confusing for consumers to understand. Despite confusion, 23andMe’s informed consent practices are IRB-approved. Several sections of the privacy policy allows data to be disclosed to third parties, regardless whether the consent is signed:


title: 23andMe

text: Section 4(b) "We permit third party advertising networks and providers to collect Web-Behavior Information regarding the use of our Services to help us to deliver targeted online advertisements ('ads') to you."


title: 23andMe

text: Section 4(c): "Regardless of your consent status, we may also include your data in aggregate data that we disclose to third-party research partners who will not publish that information in a scientific journal."


title: 23andMe

text: Section 4(d): "We may share some or all of your Personal Information with other companies under common ownership or control of 23andMe, which may include our subsidiaries, our corporate parent, or any other subsidiaries owned by our corporate parent in order to provide you better service and improve user experience."


title: 23andMe

text: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) protects a person against discrimination based on genetic information by their employer(s) or insurance companies in "most" situations. However, GINA does not extend to discrimination based on genetic information for long-term care or disability-insurance providers.


title: 23andMe

text: Effective as of 25 May 2018, 23andMe must abide by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is a set of rules/regulations that helps an individual take control of their data information that is collected, used and stored digitally or in a structured filing system on paper, and restricts a company's use of personal data. The regulation also applies to companies who offer products/services outside of the EU.


title: 23andMe

text: Aggregated customer data is studied by scientific researchers employed by 23andMe for research on inherited disorders; rights to use customers' data is also sold to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for use in their research. The company also collaborates with academic and government scientists. In July 2012, 23andMe acquired the startup CureTogether, a crowdsourced treatment ratings website with data on over 600 medical conditions. 23andMe has an optional consent that enables the individual's genetic information to be included in medical research that may be published in a scientific journal. However, if an individual chooses not to consent for their 'personal information' to be used, their 'genetic information' and 'self-reported information' may still be used and shared with the company's third party service providers.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2010, 23andMe said that it was able to use its database to validate work published by the NIH: identifying mutations in the gene that codes for glucocerebrosidase as a risk factor for Parkinson's disease.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2015, 23andMe made a business decision to pursue drug discovery themselves, under the direction of former Genentech executive Richard Scheller. One of their main focuses is Parkinson's disease, and they are utilizing the 23andMe database to search for rare variants associated with Parkinson's in the hope of developing a drug for the disease. The company also set up research agreements with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to explore the genetic causes of inflammatory bowel disease, namely ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2016, a project that the company was developing to provide customers with next generation sequencing was ended, because of the fear that the results would be too complicated or vague to fit into the company's goal of providing useful information, both quickly and precisely, directly to consumers, according to Wojcicki. Also in 2016, 23andMe used self-reported data from customers to locate 17 genetic loci that seem to be associated with depression.


title: 23andMe

text: In 2017, 23andMe, the Lundbeck pharmaceutical company, and the Milken Institute think tank started collaborations to focus on psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder and major depression. Their goals are to determine the genetic roots of such disorders, as well as pursue drug discovery in those areas.


title: 23andMe

text: 23andMe does not have a history of allowing its genetic profiles to be used by law enforcement to solve crimes, believing that it violates users' privacy. As of February 15, 2019, 23andMe has denied data requests by law enforcement on six separate occasions. However, according to section 8 of the terms of service, "23andMe is free to preserve and disclose any and all Personal Information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary."


title: 23andMe

text: Overall, the privacy policies are clear on their website, with a table of contents, easy structure and language, easy access and precise explanations of how data is collected, used, and stored. It also explains how users can access their data, change and delete their data and how to contact them with any concerns. Although these privacy policies are straightforward and easy to understand, there are some questionable sections and components. For instance, on Ancestry.com, they use genetic information not only to provide users with their DNA kit results, but also to conduct “scientific, statistical, and historical research” and “to better understand population and ethnicity-related health, wellness, aging, or physical conditions”. They ask users for permission before their data is used for research, but many users do not pay attention to the privacy policy and do not realize what they are agreeing to. Over 5 million 23andMe customers have opted in for their data being used in research.


title: Crime boss

text: A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, kingpin, godfather, or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization.


title: Crime boss

text: A crime boss typically has absolute or nearly absolute control over the other members of the organization and is often greatly feared or respected for their cunning, strategy, and/or ruthlessness and willingness to take lives to exert their influence and profits from the criminal endeavors in which the organization engages.


title: Crime boss

text: Some groups may only have as little as two ranks (a crime boss and their soldiers). Other groups have a more complex, structured organization with many ranks, and structure may vary with cultural background. Organized crime enterprises originating in Sicily differ in structure from those in mainland Italy. American groups may be structured differently from their European counterparts and Latino and African American gangs often have structures that vary from European gangs. The size of the criminal organization is also important, as regional or national gangs have much more complex hierarchies.


title: Crime boss

text: The boss in the Sicilian and Italian-American Mafia is the head of the crime family and the top decision maker. Only the boss, underboss or consigliere can initiate an associate into the family, allowing them to become a made man. The boss can promote or demote family members at will, and has the sole power to sanction murders inside and outside the family. If the boss is incarcerated or incapacitated, he usually retains the title of "boss" but may appoint an "acting boss" who is responsible for running the crime family in his stead or on a more daily basis. In addition to "boss" and "acting boss", some families have at times officially or unofficially utilized the positions of "front boss" and "street boss". A "front boss" is generally put into place to act ostensibly as the boss while drawing police attention away from the actual official boss operating behind the scenes. A "street boss" is often informally appointed or regarded by the official boss or by subordinates as the "hands-on", street-level, actively engaged proxy or stand-in for the official boss, usually coordinating, controlling, and managing street operations on the behalf of an official boss who prefers to stay behind the scenes (either by choice or to avoid police scrutiny). "Street bosses" are often particularly influential or powerful caporegimes or underbosses, and the term is sometimes used interchangeably with "acting boss" or "front boss" depending on the circumstances. When a boss dies, the crime family members choose a new boss from inside the organization.


title: Crime boss

text: A boss will typically put up layers of insulation between himself and his men so as to hinder police efforts to connect his orders to him. Whenever he issues orders, he does so either to his underboss, consigliere or capos. The orders are then passed down the line to the soldiers. This makes it difficult under most circumstances for the police to directly implicate a boss in a crime, since he almost never directly gives orders to the soldiers.


title: Crime boss

text: The term Mr. Big is used within the underworld, and additionally during media reportings of persons associated with criminal activities, to refer to a leader of a body of persons functioning in the capacities of roles within organised crime. Sometimes bosses of the so-called gangland are referred to as being "Mr Big", as for example when he could not be named for legal reasons. The term implicitly indicates a degree of a possession of a higher intelligence of an individual.


title: Crime boss

text: The term especially indicates the existence of involvement in what is known as "big-time crime", which would include for example armed robbery, and the more organised aspects of careers within crime.


title: Crime boss

text: A 1945 dictionary of criminal slang in the U.S. lists "Big Brains" as "a gang-leader", but not "Mr Big".


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Steven Ralph Schirripa ( ; born September 3, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on "The Sopranos", Leo Boykewich on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager", and Detective Anthony Abetemarco on "Blue Bloods". Schirripa is host of two Investigation Discovery series: "Karma's A B*tch!" and "Nothing Personal". He is the voice of Roberto in the "Open Season" film series.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Schirripa was born on September 3, 1957 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. His father, Ralph Schirripa, was Italian-American. His grandparents, Ilario Schirripa and Maria Capacci, were from Riace, Calabria, Southern Italy. His mother, Lorraine Schirripa (née Bernstein), was of Jewish descent. Schirripa grew up in a low-income household with four siblings and graduated from Brooklyn College.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Schirripa got his first taste of show business in his job as entertainment director of the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In the biography page of his website, Schirripa says that he had cameo appearances in comedy specials by Drew Carey and Kevin Pollak, among other comedians. That led to a role as an uncredited extra in Martin Scorsese's "Casino". In the film, he portrayed a customer at the bar in the scene when Joe Pesci's character angrily stabs a man with a pen. After this, Schirripa decided that he wanted to become an actor.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: He had several minor roles in movies, including "The Runner" (1999) and "Joe Dirt" (2001). His breakthrough role was in the second season (2000) of "The Sopranos", playing Tony Soprano's mobster brother-in-law Bobby Baccalieri. By chance, he was in New York City in June 1999 for a friend's wedding, and around that time he was invited for an audition in New York City, initially for Agent Skip Lipari, and later for the role of Baccalieri. He played Baccalieri for five seasons, and for the first two seasons, he wore a fat suit to fit the role.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: His many television appearances include "Angel," "Casino Cinema", "Columbo", "", "Hollywood Squares", "Joey", "Law & Order", "", "My Wife and Kids", "Ed", "Jeopardy!", "George Lopez", "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" and "The King of Queens". In 2008, Schirripa appeared on CBS's primetime game show "Million Dollar Password", and in 2019, Schirripa appeared on the game show "Pyramid" alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler. He also made an uncredited appearance along with fellow Soprano star Vincent Pastore on the 6th Season episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" entitled "She Creature".


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Schirripa was a frequent guest on the Don Imus radio program. In February 2007, he began to make appearances for "Total Nonstop Action Wrestling", on Spike TV, siding with Team 3D as their cousin in their ongoing battle against The Latin American Xchange. On October 30, 2007, he appeared on, "The Podge and Rodge Show". He also did spots as "Steve the Judgmental Bastard" on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, and taped several episodes of "The Gong Show with Dave Attell," as one of the celebrity judges.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: From 2008 to 2012, Schirripa had a recurring role in the ABC Family show, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager", as Leo Boykewich, Ben's dad.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: In 2009, he made a cameo appearance alongside fellow "Sopranos" actor Frank Vincent in "Stargate Atlantis" episode "Vegas". He was also in 2009's "My Fake Fiancé" with Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence as the Monkey.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: He has appeared on the "Tonight Show" more than 40 times as a guest and as a correspondent. Schirripa hosted NBC's poker game show, "Face the Ace", with the premiere episode airing on August 1, 2009. In the fall of 2010, Schirripa had a guest star role in the digital comedy short film, "Lil DPC", from writer/director Michael Ratner, which also features rapper Fat Joe and Blink 182's Mark Hoppus.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: In 2011 and 2012, Schirripa hosted and narrated the television true-crime series "Nothing Personal", which premiered in the US on Investigation Discovery and in the UK on History. The series featured an often humorous take on true stories and reenactments of murders-for-hire. In addition to hosting the hour-long programs, Schirripa was one of the program's executive producers. Subsequently, Schirripa hosted "Karma's a B*tch!", also for Investigation Discovery.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: He has also guest-starred in the American version of "Top Gear". Schirripa played Sonny Rosselli in "A Poet Long Ago", a short film written by Pete Hamill and directed by Bob Giraldi, which gained entry into a number of film festivals in 2013.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: In 2014, Schirripa played Joey on the ABC series "Black Box", did voice acting in an episode of "American Dad!" entitled "Stan Goes on the Pill", and played Vito in the silver screen adaptation "Jersey Boys", directed by Clint Eastwood. He will play Father Ed in "Chasing Yesterday", a film by writer/director Joseph Pernice, as well as be in the film "Houses", by writer/director Jenner Furst, alongside "Sopranos" co-stars Michael Imperioli and John Ventimiglia.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Starting in 2015, Schirripa has played Det. Anthony Abetemarco, an investigator who works with assistant district attorney Erin Reagan on the CBS series "Blue Bloods".


title: Steve Schirripa

text: In July 2017, Schirripa appeared in a segment on John Oliver's satirical news show Last Week Tonight satirizing Boris Epshteyn and the right-wing tone of mandatory segments given to member stations by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Schirripa co-hosts a podcast with Michael Imperioli called "Talking Sopranos", which began on April 6, 2020. The two provide inside info as they follow "The Sopranos" series episode by episode. By September 2020, the podcast had reached over five million downloads. On September 17, 2020, Imperioli and Schirripa signed a deal with HarperCollins book imprint William Morrow and Company to write an oral history of the show; the book titled "Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos" was released on November 2, 2021.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Schirripa's acting roles often portrayed "goombas," slang for stereotypical Italian-American tough guys and often denoting connections to the Mafia. He carried that persona over into real life but with a comedic twist, especially in appearances on talk and game shows. He expanded on that persona when he wrote a series of books starting with "A Goomba's Guide to Life" () in 2002. He followed up with "The Goomba's Book of Love," co-authored with Charles Fleming in 2003 (). The series continued with "The Goomba Diet: Large and Loving It" () in 2006, and in 2013 "Big Daddy's Rules: Raising Daughters Is Tougher Than I Look" (), co-authored by Philip Lerman.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: Schirripa and Fleming also collaborated on two books about Nicky Deuce, a suburban teenager who is sent to visit his grandparents in Brooklyn. "Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family" was followed by "Nicky Deuce: Home for the Holidays," which was the basis for the 2013 Nickelodeon film "Nicky Deuce" starring Noah Munck. "Nicky Deuce" also featured supporting roles filled by James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Tony Sirico, and Vincent Curatola of "The Sopranos" fame.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: On April 3, 2014, Steve Schirripa gave a theatrical performance in a special production of "Guys and Dolls" alongside Nathan Lane, Patrick Wilson, and Megan Mullally at Carnegie Hall.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: In 2014, Schirripa launched a line of organic vegan pasta sauces under the business name of Uncle Steve's Italian Specialties Group. Schirripa appeared on the "Eric Andre Show", in part, to promote the sauce.


title: Steve Schirripa

text: When asked if he was bar mitzvahed, Schirripa answered no and stated that he was raised as a Catholic but that he "very much identifies as being Jewish as well".


title: History of banking

text: The history of banking began with the first prototype banks, that is, the merchants of the world, who gave grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This was around 2000 BCE in Assyria, India and Sumeria. Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples gave 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.


title: History of banking

text: Many scholars trace the historical roots of the modern banking system to medieval and Renaissance Italy, 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.


title: History of banking

text: Until the end of 2002, the oldest bank still in operation was the Banco di Napoli headquartered in Naples, Italy, which had been operating since 1463.


title: History of banking

text: 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 since 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.


title: History of banking

text: The shift from a reliance on hunting and gathering of foods to agricultural practices, starting sometime after 12,000 BCE, resulted in increased stability of economic relations. Such changes in socio-economic conditions began approximately 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, about 9,500 years ago in northern China, about 5,500 years ago in Mexico, and approximately 4,500 years ago in the eastern parts of the United States.


title: History of banking

text: Ancient types of money known as grain-money and food cattle-money were used from around 9000 BCE as two of the earliest commodities used for purposes of bartering.


title: History of banking

text: Anatolian obsidian as a raw material for Stone Age tools was being distributed from as early as about 12,500 BCE, and organized trading of it was occurring during the 9th millennium BCE (Cauvin; Chataigner 1989). Sardinia was one of the four main sites for sourcing the material deposits of obsidian within the Mediterranean; trade using obsidian was replaced during the 3rd millennium BCE by trade of copper and silver.


title: History of banking

text: Objects used for record keeping, "bulla" and "tokens", have been recovered from within Near East excavations, dated to a period beginning 8000 BCE and ending 1500 BCE, as records of the counting of agricultural produce. Commencing in the late fourth millennia symbols were in use by members of temples and palaces to record stocks of produce. Types of records accounting for trade exchanges of payments were first being made about 3200 BCE. The "Code of Hammurabi", written on a clay tablet around 1700 BCE, describes the regulation of banking activity within the civilization (Armstrong); although still rudimentary, banking was well enough developed to justify laws governing banking operations. Later during the Achaemenid Empire (after 646 BCE), further evidence is found of banking practices in the Mesopotamia region.


title: History of banking

text: By the 5th millennium BCE, the settlements of Sumer, such as Eridu, were formed around a central temple. In the fifth millennium, people began to build and live in the civilization of cities, providing a structure for the construction of institutions and establishments. Tell Brak and Uruk were two early urban settlements.


title: History of banking

text: Banking as an archaic activity (or quasi-banking) is thought to have begun as early as the latter part of the 4th millennium BCE, to the 3rd millennia BCE.


title: History of banking

text: 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 therein; trade at the time for citizens external to the city was forbidden.


title: History of banking

text: In Babylonia of 2000 BCE, people depositing gold were required to pay amounts as much as one sixtieth of the total deposited. Both the palaces and temple are known to have provided lending and issuing from the wealth they held—the palaces to a lesser extent. Such loans typically involved issuing seed-grain, with re-payment from the harvest. These basic social agreements were documented in clay tablets,


title: History of banking

text: with an agreement on interest . The habit of depositing and storing of wealth in temples continued at least until 209 BCE, as evidenced by Antioch having ransacked or pillaged the temple of Aine in Ecbatana (Media) of gold and silver.


title: History of banking

text: More information comes from the code commissioned by Hammurabi, king of Babylon –1750 BCE. Law 100 stipulated that repayment of a loan by a debtor to a creditor was to be on a schedule with a maturity date specified in written contractual terms. Law 122 stipulated that a depositor of gold, silver, or other property must present all articles and a signed contract of bailment to a notary before depositing the articles with a banker, and Law 123 stipulated that a banker was discharged of any liability from a contract of bailment if the notary denied the existence of the contract. Law 124 stipulated that a depositor with a notarized contract of bailment was entitled to redeem the entirety of their deposit, and Law 125 stipulated that a banker was liable for replacement of deposits stolen while in their possession.


title: History of banking

text: Cuneiform records of the house of Egibi of Babylonia describe the family's financial activities as having occurred sometime after 1000 BCE and ending sometime during the reign of Darius I. These records suggest a "lending house" (Silver 2002), a family engaging in "professional banking..." (Dandamaev "et al." 2004), and economic activities similar to modern deposit banking. Another interpretation is that the family's activities are better described as entrepreneurship rather than banking (Wunsch 2007). The Murashu family apparently took part in providing credit(Moshenskyi 2008).


title: History of banking

text: The temple of Artemis at Ephesus was the largest depository of Asia. A pot-hoard dated to 600 BCE was found in excavations by The British Museum during 1904. During the time of the cessation of the first Mithridatic war, the entire debt being held at the time was annulled by the council. Mark Anthony is recorded to have stolen from the deposits on occasion. The temple served as a depository for Aristotle, Caesar, Dio Chrysostomus, Plautus, Plutarch, Strabo and Xenophon.


title: History of banking

text: The temple to Apollo in Didyma was constructed sometime in the 6th century. A large sum of gold was deposited within the treasury at the time by king Croesus.


title: History of banking

text: In ancient India there are evidences of loans from the Vedic period (beginning 1750 BCE). Later during the Maurya dynasty (321 to 185 BCE), an instrument called adesha was in use, which was an order on a banker desiring him to pay the money of the note to a third person, which corresponds to the definition of a bill of exchange as we understand it today. During the Buddhist period, there was considerable use of these instruments. Merchants in large towns gave letters of credit to one another.


title: History of banking

text: In ancient China, starting in the Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 BCE), Chinese currency developed with the introduction of standardized coins that allowed easier trade across China, and led to development of letters of credit. These letters were issued by merchants who acted in ways that today we would understand as banks.


title: History of banking

text: Some scholars suggest that the Egyptian grain-banking system became so well-developed that it was comparable to major modern banks, both in terms of its number of branches and employees, and in terms of the total volume of transactions. During the rule of the Greek Ptolemies, the granaries were transformed into a network of banks centered in Alexandria, where the main accounts from all of the Egyptian regional grain-banks were recorded. This became the site of one of the earliest known government central banks, and may have reached its peak with the assistance of Greek bankers.


title: History of banking

text: According to Muir (2009) there were two types of banks operating within Egypt: royal and private. Documents made to show the banking of taxes were known as peptoken-records.


title: History of banking

text: "Trapezitica" is the first source documenting banking "(de Soto" – p. 41). The speeches of Demosthenes contain numerous references to the issuing of credit (Millett p. 5). Xenophon is credited to have made the first suggestion of the creation of an organisation known in the modern definition as a joint-stock bank in "On Revenues" written "circa" 353 BCE


title: History of banking

text: The city-states of Greece after the Persian Wars produced a government and culture sufficiently organized for the birth of a private citizenship and therefore an embryonic capitalist society, allowing for the separation of wealth from exclusive state ownership to the possibility of ownership by the individual.


title: History of banking

text: According to one source (Dandamaev "et al."), trapezites were the first to trade using money, during the 5th century BCE, as opposed to earlier trade which occurred using forms of pre-money.


title: History of banking

text: The earliest forms of storage utilized were the rudimentary money-boxes (ΘΗΣΑΥΡΌΣ) which were made similar in form to the construction of a bee-hive, and were found for example in the Mycenae tombs of 1550–1500 BCE.


title: History of banking

text: Private and civic entities within ancient Grecian society, especially , performed financial transactions. (Gilbart p. 3) The temples were the places where treasure was deposited for safe-keeping. The three temples thought the most important were the temple to Artemis in Ephesus, and temple of Hera within Samos, and within Delphi, the temple to Apollo. These consisted of deposits, currency exchange, validation of coinage, and loans.


title: History of banking

text: The first treasury to the Apollonian temple was built before the end of the 7th century BCE. A treasury of the temple was constructed by the city of Siphnos during the 6th century.


title: History of banking

text: Before the destruction by Persians during the 480 invasion, the Athenian Acropolis temple dedicated to Athena stored money; Pericles rebuilt a depository afterward contained within the Parthenon.


title: History of banking

text: During the reign of the Ptolemies, state depositories replaced temples as the location of security-deposits. Records exist to show this having occurred by the end of the reign of Ptolemy I (305–284).


title: History of banking

text: As the need for new buildings to house operations increased, construction of these places within the cities began around the courtyards of the agora (markets).


title: History of banking

text: During the late 3rd and 2nd century BCE, the Aegean island of Delos became a prominent banking center. During the 2nd century, there were for certain three banks and one temple depository within the city.


title: History of banking

text: Of the settlements of the Greco-Roman world of the 1st century CE, three were of pronounced wealth and centres of banking: Athens, Corinth and Patras.


title: History of banking

text: Many loans are recorded in writings from the classical age, although a very small proportion were provided by banks. Provision of these were likely an occurrence of Athens, with loans known to have been provided at some time at an annual interest of 12%. Within the boundaries of Athens, bankers' loans are recorded as having been issued on eleven occasions altogether (Bogaert 1968).


title: History of banking

text: Banks sometimes made loans available confidentially, which is, they provided funds without being publicly and openly known to have done so In addition, they kept depositors' names confidential as well. This intermediation "per se" was known as dia tes trapazēs.


title: History of banking

text: Roman banking activities were a crucial presence within temples. For instance the minting of coins occurred within temples, most importantly the Juno Moneta temple, though during the time of the Empire, public deposits gradually ceased to be held in temples, and instead were held in private depositories. Still, the Roman Empire inherited the mercantile practices from Greece (Parker).


title: History of banking

text: During 352 BCE a rudimentary public bank (known as "dēmosía trápeza" ) was formed, with the passing of a consular directive to form a commission of "mensarii" to deal with debt in the impoverished lower classes. Another source shows banking practices during 325 BCE when, on account of being in debt, the Plebeians were required to borrow money, so newly appointed "quinqueviri mensarii" were commissioned to provide services to those who had security to provide, in exchange for money from the public treasury. Another source (J. Andreau) has the shops of banking of Ancient Rome firstly opening in the public forums during the period 318 to 310 BCE.


title: History of banking

text: In early Ancient Rome deposit bankers were known as "argentarii" and at a later time (from the 2nd century CE onward) as "nummularii" (Andreau 1999 p. 2) or "mensarii". The banking-houses were known as "Taberae Argentarioe" and "Mensoe Numularioe". They would set up their stalls in the middle of enclosed courtyards called "macella" on a long bench called a "bancu", from which the words "banco" and "bank" are derived. As a money changer, the merchant at the "bancu" did not so much invest money as merely convert the foreign currency into the only legal tender in Rome—that of the Imperial Mint.


title: History of banking

text: Operations of banking within Roman society were known as "officium argentarii". Statutes (125/126 CE) of the Empire described ""letter from" "Caesar to Quietus"" show rental monies to be collected from persons using land belonging to a temple and given to the temple treasurer, as decreed by Mettius Modestus, governor of Lycia and Pamphylia. A law, "receptum argentarii", obliged a bank to pay its clients debts under guarantee.


title: History of banking

text: Cassius Dio advocated the establishment of a state bank, funded by the sale of all the properties owned at the time by the state.


title: History of banking

text: The Roman empire at some time formalized the administrative aspect of banking and instituted greater regulation of financial institutions and financial practices. Charging interest on loans and paying interest on deposits became more highly developed and competitive. The development of Roman banks was limited, however, by the Roman preference for cash transactions. During the reign of the Roman emperor Gallienus (260–268 CE), there was a temporary breakdown of the Roman banking system after the banks rejected the flakes of copper produced by his mints. With the ascent of Christianity, banking became subject to additional restrictions, as the charging of interest was seen as immoral. After the fall of Rome, banking temporarily ended in Europe and was not revived until the time of the crusades.


title: History of banking

text: Most early religious systems in the ancient Near East, and the secular codes arising from them, did not forbid usury. These societies regarded inanimate matter as alive, like plants, animals and people, and capable of reproducing itself. Hence if you lent 'food money', or monetary tokens of any kind, it was legitimate to charge interest. Food money in the shape of olives, dates, seeds or animals was lent out as early as BCE, if not earlier. Among the Mesopotamians, Hittites, Phoenicians and Egyptians, interest was legal and often fixed by the state.


title: History of banking

text: The Torah and later sections of the Hebrew Bible criticize interest-taking, but interpretations of the Biblical prohibition vary. One common understanding is that Jews are forbidden to charge interest upon loans made to other Jews, but obliged to charge interest on transactions with non-Jews. However, the Hebrew Bible itself gives numerous examples where this provision was evaded.


title: History of banking

text: In general, it was seen as advantageous to avoid debt at all, to avoid being bound to someone else. Debt was to be avoided and not used to finance consumption, except when in need. However, laws against usury were among many the prophets condemned the people for breaking.


title: History of banking

text: The interpretation that interest could be charged to non-Israelites would be used in the 14th century for Jews living within Christian societies in Europe to justify lending money for profit. This conveniently side stepped the rules against usury in both Judaism and Christianity, as Christians were not involved in the lending but were still free to take the loans.


title: History of banking

text: Originally, the charging of interest, known as usury, was banned by Christian churches. This included charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change. However over time the charging of interest became acceptable due to the changing nature of money, and the term 'usury' came to be used for charging interest above the rate allowed by law. The notion of "Christian finance" refers to banking and financial activities that came into existence several centuries ago. Despite the prohibition of usury and the Church distrust against exchange activities (as opposed to production activities), a number of operations of a banking or financial nature are in evidence in the activities of the Knights Templar (12th century), Mounts of Piety (appeared in 1462) and the Apostolic Chamber attached directly to the Vatican (money loans, guarantees, issuance of securities, investments, etc.)


title: History of banking

text: The rise of Protestantism in the 16th century weakened Rome's influence, and its dictates against usury became irrelevant in some areas, freeing up the development of banking in Northern Europe. In the late 18th century, Protestant merchant families began to move into banking to an increasing degree, especially in trading countries such as the United Kingdom (Barings), Germany (Schroders, Berenbergs) and the Netherlands (Hope & Co., Gülcher & Mulder). At the same time, new types of financial activities broadened the scope of banking far beyond its origins. One school of thought attributes to Calvinism the setting of the stage for the later development of capitalism in northern Europe. In this view, elements of Calvinism represented a revolt against the medieval condemnation of usury and, implicitly, of profit in general. Such a connection was advanced in influential works by R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) and by Max Weber (1864–1920). According to Weber, the Protestant work ethic was a force behind an unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism.


title: History of banking

text: Rodney Stark propounds the theory that Christian rationality is the primary driver behind the success of capitalism and the Rise of the West.


title: History of banking

text: The Quran strictly prohibits lending money on Interest. "O you who have believed, do not consume usury, doubled and multiplied, but fear Allah that you may be successful" (3:130) "and Allah has permitted trade and has forbidden interest" (2:275).


title: History of banking

text: The Quran states that taking interest and making money through unethical means was prohibited for Muslims and in other communities in earlier times as well: "Because of the wrongdoing of the Jews We forbade them good things which were (before) made lawful unto them, and because of their much hindering from Allah's way, And of their taking usury when they were forbidden it, and of their devouring people's wealth by false pretenses, We have prepared for those of them who disbelieve a painful doom." (Al Quran – 4:160–161)


title: History of banking

text: "Riba" is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence (fiqh). Islamic jurists discuss two types of riba: an increase in capital with no services provided, which the Qur'an prohibits, and commodity exchanges in unequal quantities, which the Sunnah prohibits. Trade in promissory notes (e.g. fiat money and derivatives) is forbidden.


title: History of banking

text: Despite the prohibition of charging interest, during the 20th century a number of developments took place that would lead to an Islamic banking model where no interest is charged but banks would still operate for profit. This was done through charging for loans in alternative ways such as through fees and using different methods of risk sharing and ownership models such as leasing.


title: History of banking

text: The roots of modern banking are traceable to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, to rich northern cities such as Florence, Venice, and Genoa.


title: History of banking

text: The original banks were "merchant banks" that Italian grain merchants invented in the Middle Ages. As Lombardy merchants and bankers grew in stature based on the strength of the Lombard plains cereal crops, many displaced Jews fleeing Spanish persecution were attracted to the trade. They brought with them ancient practices from the Middle and Far East silk routes. Originally intended to finance long trading journeys, they applied these methods to finance grain production and trading.


title: History of banking

text: Jews could not hold land in Italy, so they entered the great trading piazzas and halls of Lombardy, alongside local traders, and set up their benches to trade in crops. They had one great advantage over the locals: Christians were strictly forbidden usury, defined as lending at interest, as it was considered to be a sin. (Islam similarly condemns usury). The Jewish newcomers, on the other hand, could make high-risk loans to farmers against crops in the field, as they were not subject to the Church's dictates. In this way, they could secure grain-sale rights against the eventual harvest. They then began to advance payment against the future delivery of grain shipped to distant ports. In both cases they made a profit from the present discount against the future price. This two-handed trade was time-consuming and soon there arose a class of merchants who were trading grain debt instead of grain.


title: History of banking

text: The Jewish trader performed both financing (credit) and underwriting (insurance) functions. Financing took the form of a crop loan at the beginning of the growing season, which allowed a farmer to cultivate his annual crop, with the associated expenses of seeding, growing, weeding, and harvesting. Underwriting in the form of crop, or commodity, insurance guaranteed the delivery of the crop to its buyer, typically a merchant wholesaler. In addition, traders performed the merchant function by making arrangements to supply the buyer with the crop through alternative sources—grain stores or alternate markets, for instance—in the event of crop failure. He could also keep the farmer (or other commodity producer) in business during a drought or other crop failure, through the issuance of crop (or commodity) insurance against the hazard of failure of his crop.


title: History of banking

text: Merchant banking progressed from financing trade on one's own behalf to settling trades for others, and then to holding deposits for settlement of "billette" or notes written by the people who were still brokering the actual grain. And so the merchant's "benches" ("bank" is derived from the Italian for bench, "banca", as in a counter) in the great grain markets became centres for holding money against a bill ("billette", a note, a letter of formal exchange, later a bill of exchange and later still a cheque).


title: History of banking

text: These deposited funds were intended to be held for the settlement of grain trades, but often were used for the bench's own trades in the meantime. The term bankrupt is a corruption of the Italian "banca rotta", or broken bench, which is what happened when someone lost his traders' deposits. The expression of "being broke" has a similar etymology.


title: History of banking

text: In the 12th century, the need to transfer large sums of money to finance the Crusades stimulated the re-emergence of banking in western Europe. In 1162, Henry II of England levied a tax to support the crusades—the first of a series of taxes levied by Henry over the years with the same objective. The Templars and Hospitallers acted as Henry's bankers in the Holy Land. The Templars' far-flung, large land holdings across Europe also emerged in the 1100–1300 time frame as the beginning of Europe-wide banking. Their practice was to take in local currency for which a demand note would be given that would be good at any of their castles across Europe, allowing movement of money without the usual risk of robbery while traveling.


title: History of banking

text: A sensible manner of discounting interest to the depositors against what could be earned by employing their money in the trade of the bench soon developed; in short, selling an "interest" to them in a specific trade, thus overcoming the usury objection. Once again this merely developed what was an ancient method of financing long-distance transport of goods.


title: History of banking

text: Medieval trade fairs, such as the one in Hamburg, contributed to the growth of banking in a curious way: moneychangers issued documents redeemable at other fairs, in exchange for hard currency. These documents could be cashed at another fair in a different country or at a future fair in the same location. If redeemable at a future date, they would often be discounted by an amount comparable to a rate of interest. Eventually, these documents evolved into bills of exchange, which could be redeemed at any office of the issuing banker. These bills made it possible to transfer large sums of money without the complications of hauling large chests of gold and hiring armed guards to protect the gold from thieves.


title: History of banking

text: The Republic of Venice, sometimes mistakenly credited with establishing a Bank of Venice in the 12th century, did not formally create a public bank until 1587. However in the 13th and 14th centuries its Grain Office did a banking business that included both deposits and lending. The Republic's system of transferable public debt has also been identified as an important contribution to the development of banking.


title: History of banking

text: In the middle of the 13th century, groups of Italian Christians, particularly the Cahorsins and Lombards, invented legal loopholes to get around the ban on Christian usury; for example, one method of effecting a loan with interest was to offer money without interest, but also require that the loan be insured against possible loss or injury, and/or delays in repayment (see contractum trinius). The Christians utilizing these legal loopholes became known as the "pope's usurers", and reduced the importance of the Jews to European monarchs. Later in the Middle Ages, a distinction evolved between things that were consumable (such as food and fuel) and those that were not, with usury permitted on loans that involved the latter.


title: History of banking

text: The most powerful banking families came from Florence, including the Acciaiuoli, Mozzi, Bardi and Peruzzi families, which established branches in many other parts of Europe. Probably the most famous Italian bank was the Medici bank, set up by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici in 1397 and continuing until 1494. (Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (BMPS) Italy, is in fact the oldest banking organisation to have surviving banking-operations, or services).


title: History of banking

text: By the later Middle Ages, Christian Merchants who lent money with interest were without opposition, and Jews lost their privileged position as money-lenders. Italian bankers would take their place, and by 1327, Avignon had 43 branches of Italian banking houses. In 1347, Edward III of England defaulted on loans. Later there was the bankruptcy of the Bardi (1343 ) and Peruzzi (1346 ). The accompanying growth of Italian banking in France was the start of the Lombard moneychangers in Europe, who moved from city to city along the busy pilgrim routes important for trade. Key cities in this period were Cahors, the birthplace of Pope John XXII, and Figeac.


title: History of banking

text: After 1400, political forces did in fact somewhat turn against the methods of the Italian free enterprise bankers. In 1401 King Martin I of Aragon had some of these bankers expelled. In 1403, Henry IV of England prohibited them from taking profits in any way in his kingdom. In 1409, Flanders imprisoned and then expelled Genoese bankers. In 1410, all Italian merchants were expelled from Paris. In 1407, the Bank of Saint George, the first state-bank of deposit, was founded in Genoa and was to dominate business in the Mediterranean.


title: History of banking

text: Between 1527 and 1572 a number of important banking family groups arose, such as the Grimaldi, Spinola and Pallavicino families, who were especially influential and wealthy, the Doria, although perhaps less influential, and the Pinelli and the Lomellini.


title: History of banking

text: In 1401 the magistrates of Barcelona, then the capital of the Principality of Catalonia, established in the city the first replication of the Venetian model of exchange and deposit, Taula de canvi—the "Table of Exchange", considered to be the first public bank of Europe.


title: History of banking

text: Halil Inalcik suggests that, in the 16th century, Marrano Jews (Doña Gracia from House of Mendes) fleeing from Iberia introduced the techniques of European capitalism, banking and even the mercantilist concept of state economy to the Ottoman Empire. In the 16th century, the leading financiers in Istanbul were Greeks and Jews. Many of the Jewish financiers were Marranos who had fled from Iberia during the period leading up to the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Some of these families brought great fortunes with them.


title: History of banking

text: The most notable of the Jewish banking families in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire was the Marrano banking house of Mendes, which moved to Istanbul in 1552, under the protection of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. When Alvaro Mendes arrived in Istanbul in 1588, he is reported to have brought with him 85,000 gold ducats. The Mendès family soon acquired a dominating position in the state finances of the Ottoman Empire and in commerce with Europe.


title: History of banking

text: They thrived in Baghdad during the 18th and 19th centuries under Ottoman rule, performing critical commercial functions such as moneylending and banking. Like the Armenians, the Jews could engage in necessary commercial activities, such as moneylending and banking, that were proscribed for Muslims under Islamic law.


title: History of banking

text: Court Jews were Jewish bankers or businessmen who lent money and handled the finances of some of the Christian European noble houses, primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries. Court Jews were precursors to the modern financier or Secretary of the Treasury. Their jobs included raising revenues by tax farming, negotiating loans, master of the mint, creating new sources for revenue, floating debentures, devising new taxes. and supplying the military. In addition, the Court Jew acted as personal bankers for nobility: he raised money to cover the noble's personal diplomacy and his extravagances.


title: History of banking

text: Court Jews were skilled administrators and businessmen who received privileges in return for their services. They were most commonly found in Germany, Holland, and Austria, but also in Denmark, England, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain. According to Dimont, virtually every duchy, principality, and palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire had a Court Jew.


title: History of banking

text: In the southern German realm, two great banking families emerged in the 15th century, the Fuggers and the Welsers. They came to control much of the European economy and to dominate international high finance in the 16th century. The Fuggers built the first German social housing area for the poor in Augsburg, the Fuggerei. It still exists, but not the original Fugger Bank which lasted from 1486 to 1647.


title: History of banking

text: Dutch bankers played a central role in establishing banking in the Northern German city states. Berenberg Bank is the oldest bank in Germany and the world's second oldest, established in 1590 by Dutch brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg in Hamburg. The bank is still owned by the Berenberg dynasty.


title: History of banking

text: In the 16th and 17th century, precious metals from the New World, Gold Coast, Japan and other locales were being imported into Europe, with corresponding price increases. Thanks to the free coinage, the Bank of Amsterdam, and the heightened trade and commerce, the Netherlands attracted even more coin and bullion to be deposited in their banks. The concepts of fractional-reserve banking and payment systems were further developed and spread to England and elsewhere.


title: History of banking

text: In the City of London there were no banking houses operating in a manner recognized as so today until the 17th century, although the London Royal Exchange was established in 1565.


title: History of banking

text: By the end of the 16th century and during the 17th, the traditional banking functions of accepting deposits, moneylending, money changing, and transferring funds were combined with the issuance of bank debt that served as a substitute for gold and silver coins.


title: History of banking

text: New banking practices promoted commercial and industrial growth by providing a safe and convenient means of payment and a money supply more responsive to commercial needs, as well as by "discounting" business debt. By the end of the 17th century, banking was also becoming important for the funding requirements of the combative European states. This would lead on to government regulations and the first central banks. The success of the new banking techniques and practices in Amsterdam and London helped spread the concepts and ideas elsewhere in Europe.


title: History of banking

text: Modern banking practice, including fractional reserve banking and the issue of banknotes, emerged in the 17th century. At the time, wealthy merchants began to store their gold with the goldsmiths of London, who possessed private vaults and charged a fee for their service. In exchange for each deposit of precious metal, the goldsmiths issued receipts certifying the quantity and purity of the metal they held as a bailee; these receipts could not be assigned, only the original depositor could collect the stored goods.


title: History of banking

text: Gradually the goldsmiths began to lend the money out on behalf of the depositor, which led to the development of modern banking practices; promissory notes (which evolved into banknotes) were issued for money deposited as a loan to the goldsmith.


title: History of banking

text: These practices created a new kind of "money" that was actually debt, that is, goldsmiths' debt rather than silver or gold coin, a commodity that had been regulated and controlled by the monarchy. This development required the acceptance in trade of the goldsmiths' promissory notes, payable on demand. Acceptance in turn required a general belief that coin would be available; and a fractional reserve normally served this purpose. Acceptance also required that the holders of debt be able to legally enforce an unconditional right to payment; it required that the notes (as well as drafts) be negotiable instruments. The concept of negotiability had emerged in fits and starts in European money markets, but it was well developed by the 17th century. Nevertheless, an act of Parliament was required in the early 18th century (1704) to overrule court decisions holding that the goldsmiths' notes, despite the "customs of merchants", were not negotiable.


title: History of banking

text: In 1695, the Bank of England became one of the first banks to issue banknotes, the first being the short-lived banknotes issued by Stockholms Banco in 1661. Initially, these were hand-written and issued on deposit or as a loan, and promised to pay the bearer the value of the note on demand in specie. By 1745, standardized printed notes ranging from £20 to £1,000 were being issued. Fully printed notes that didn't require the name of the payee and the cashier's signature first appeared in 1855.


title: History of banking

text: In the 18th century, services offered by banks increased. Clearing facilities, security investments, cheques and overdraft protections were introduced. Cheques had been used since the 1600s in England and banks settled payments by direct courier to the issuing bank. Around 1770, they began meeting in a central location, and by the 1800s a dedicated space was established, known as a bankers' clearing house. The method used by the London clearing house involved each bank paying cash to an inspector and then being paid cash by the inspector at the end of each day. The first overdraft facility was set up in 1728 by the Royal Bank of Scotland.


title: History of banking

text: The number of banks increased during the Industrial Revolution and the growing international trade, especially in London. At the same time, new types of financial activities broadened the scope of banking. The merchant-banking families dealt in everything from underwriting bonds to originating foreign loans. These new "merchant banks" facilitated trade growth, profiting from England's emerging dominance in seaborne shipping. Two immigrant families, Rothschild and Baring, established merchant banking firms in London in the late 18th century and came to dominate world banking in the next century.


title: History of banking

text: A great impetus to country banking came in 1797 when, with England threatened by war, the Bank of England suspended cash payments. A handful of Frenchmen landed in Pembrokeshire, causing a panic. Shortly after this incident, Parliament authorised the Bank of England and country bankers to issue notes of low denomination.


title: History of banking

text: During the Qing dynasty, the private nationwide financial system in China was first developed by the Shanxi merchants, with the creation of so-called "draft banks". The first draft bank Rishengchang was created around 1823 in Pingyao. Some large draft banks had branches in Russia, Mongolia and Japan to facilitate international trade. Throughout the 19th century, the central Shanxi region became the de facto financial centre of Qing China.


title: History of banking

text: With the fall of the Qing dynasty, the financial centers gradually shifted to Shanghai, with western-style modern banks flourishing. Today, the financial centres in China are Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.


title: History of banking

text: In 1868, the Meiji government attempted to formulate a functioning banking system, which continued until some time during 1881. They emulated French models. The Imperial mint began using imported machines from Britain in the early years of the Meiji period.


title: History of banking

text: The Bank of Amsterdam became a model for the functioning of a bank in the capacity of monetary exchange and started the development of central banks. An early central bank was the Sveriges Riksbank, established in 1668, although this was short-lived.


title: History of banking

text: In England in the 1690s, public funds were in short supply and were needed to finance the ongoing conflict with France. The credit of William III's government was so low in London that it was impossible for it to borrow the £1,200,000 (at 8 per cent) that the government wanted. In order to induce subscription to the loan, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The bank was given exclusive possession of the government's balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue banknotes. The lenders would give the government cash (bullion) and also issue notes against the government bonds, which can be lent again. The £1.2M was raised in 12 days; half of this was used to rebuild the Navy. The establishment of the Bank of England, the model on which most modern central banks have been based on, was devised by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, in 1694, to the plan which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before, but had not been acted upon. He proposed a loan of £1.2M to the government; in return the subscribers would be incorporated as "The Governor and Company of the Bank of England" with long-term banking privileges including the issue of notes. The Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694.


title: History of banking

text: Although the Bank was originally a private institution, by the end of the 18th century it was increasingly being regarded as a public authority with civic responsibility toward the upkeep of a healthy financial system. The currency crisis of 1797, caused by panicked depositors withdrawing from the Bank led to the government suspending convertibility of notes into specie payment. The bank was soon accused by the bullionists of causing the exchange rate to fall from over issuing banknotes, a charge which the Bank denied. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Bank was being treated as an organ of the state.


title: History of banking

text: Henry Thornton, a merchant banker and monetary theorist has been described as the father of the modern central bank. An opponent of the real bills doctrine, he was a defender of the bullionist position and a significant figure in monetary theory, his process of monetary expansion anticipating the theories of Knut Wicksell regarding the "cumulative process which restates the Quantity Theory in a theoretically coherent form". As a response 1797 currency crisis, Thornton wrote in 1802 "An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain", in which he argued that the increase in paper credit did not cause the crisis. The book also gives a detailed account of the British monetary system as well as a detailed examination of the ways in which the Bank of England should act to counteract fluctuations in the value of the pound.


title: History of banking

text: Until the mid-nineteenth century, commercial banks were able to issue their own banknotes, and notes issued by provincial banking companies were commonly in circulation. Many consider the origins of the central bank to lie with the passage of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Under the 1844 Act, bullionism was institutionalized in Britain, creating a ratio between the gold reserves held by the Bank of England and the notes that the Bank could issue. The Act also placed strict curbs on the issuance of notes by the country banks.


title: History of banking

text: The Bank accepted the role of 'lender of last resort' in the 1870s after criticism of its lacklustre response to the Overend-Gurney crisis. The journalist Walter Bagehot wrote an influential work on the subject "", in which he advocated for the Bank to officially become a lender of last resort during a credit crunch (sometimes referred to as "Bagehot's dictum").


title: History of banking

text: Central banks were established in many European countries during the 19th century. The War of the Second Coalition led to the creation of the Banque de France in 1800, in an effort to improve the public financing of the war. The US Federal Reserve was created by the U.S. Congress through the passing of The Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Australia established its first central bank in 1920, Colombia in 1923, Mexico and Chile in 1925 and Canada and New Zealand in the aftermath of the Great Depression in 1934. By 1935, the only significant independent nation that did not possess a central bank was Brazil, which subsequently developed a precursor thereto in 1945 and the present central bank twenty years later. Having gained independence, African and Asian countries also established central banks or monetary union.


title: History of banking

text: The Rothschild family pioneered international finance in the early 19th century. The family provided loans to the Bank of England and purchased government bonds in the stock markets. Their wealth has been estimated to possibly be the most in modern history. In 1804, Nathan Mayer Rothschild began to deal on the London stock exchange in financial instruments such as foreign bills and government securities. From 1809 Rothschild began to deal in gold bullion, and developed this as a cornerstone of his business. From 1811 on, in negotiation with Commissary-General John Charles Herries, he undertook to transfer money to pay Wellington's troops, on campaign in Portugal and Spain against Napoleon, and later to make subsidy payments to British allies when these organized new troops after Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign. His four brothers helped co-ordinate activities across the continent, and the family developed a network of agents, shippers and couriers to transport gold—and information—across Europe. This private intelligence service enabled Nathan to receive in London the news of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Waterloo a full day ahead of the government's official messengers.


title: History of banking

text: The Rothschild family were instrumental in supporting railway systems across the world and in complex government financing for projects such as the Suez Canal. The family bought up a large proportion of the property in Mayfair, London. Major businesses directly founded by Rothschild family capital include Alliance Assurance (1824) (now Royal & SunAlliance); Chemin de Fer du Nord (1845); Rio Tinto Group (1873); Société Le Nickel (1880) (now Eramet); and Imétal (1962) (now Imerys). The Rothschilds financed the founding of De Beers, as well as Cecil Rhodes on his expeditions in Africa and the creation of the colony of Rhodesia.


title: History of banking

text: The Japanese government approached the London and Paris families for funding during the Russo-Japanese War. The London consortium's issue of Japanese war bonds would total £11.5 million (at 1907 currency rates).


title: History of banking

text: Napoleon III had the goal of overtaking London to make Paris the premier financial center of the world, but the war in 1870 reduced the range of Parisian financial influence. Paris had emerged as an international center of finance in the mid-19th century second only to London. It had a strong national bank and numerous aggressive private banks that financed projects all across Europe and the expanding French Empire.


title: History of banking

text: One key development was setting up one of the main branches of the Rothschild family. In 1812, James Mayer Rothschild arrived in Paris from Frankfurt, and set up the bank "De Rothschild Frères". This bank funded Napoleon's return from Elba and became one of the leading banks in European finance. The Rothschild banking family of France funded France's major wars and colonial expansion. The Banque de France, founded in 1796 helped resolve the financial crisis of 1848 and emerged as a powerful central bank. The Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris (CNEP) was established during the financial crisis and the republican revolution of 1848. Its innovations included both private and public sources in funding large projects, and the creation of a network of local offices to reach a much larger pool of depositors.


title: History of banking

text: Building societies were established as financial institutions owned by their members as mutual organizations. The origins of the building society as an institution lie in late-18th century Birmingham—a town which was undergoing rapid economic and physical expansion driven by a multiplicity of small metalworking firms, whose many highly skilled and prosperous owners readily invested in property.


title: History of banking

text: Many of the early building societies were based in taverns or coffeehouses, which had become the focus for a network of clubs and societies for co-operation and the exchange of ideas among Birmingham's highly active citizenry as part of the movement known as the Midlands Enlightenment. The first building society to be established was Ketley's Building Society, founded by Richard Ketley, the landlord of the "Golden Cross" inn, in 1775.


title: History of banking

text: Members of Ketley's society paid a monthly subscription to a central pool of funds which was used to finance the building of houses for members, which in turn acted as collateral to attract further funding to the society, enabling further construction. The first outside the English Midlands was established in Leeds in 1785.


title: History of banking

text: Mutual savings banks also emerged at that time, as financial institutions chartered by government, without capital stock, and owned by their members who subscribe to common funds. The institution most frequently identified as the first modern savings bank was the "Savings and Friendly Society" organized by the Reverend Henry Duncan in 1810, in Ruthwell, Scotland. Rev. Duncan established the small bank in order to encourage his working class congregation to develop thrift.


title: History of banking

text: Another precursor to the modern savings bank originated in Germany, with Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen who developed cooperative banking models that led on to the credit union movement. The traditional banks had viewed poor and rural communities as unbankable because of very small, seasonal flows of cash and very limited human resources. In the history of credit unions the concepts of cooperative banking spread through northern Europe and onto the US at the turn of the 20th century under a wide range of different names.


title: History of banking

text: To provide depositors who did not have access to banks a safe, convenient method to save money and to promote saving among the poor, the postal savings system was introduced in Great Britain in 1861. It was vigorously supported by William Ewart Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who saw it as a cheap way to finance the public debt. At the time, banks were mainly in the cities and largely catered to wealthy customers. Rural citizens and the poor had no choice but to keep their funds at home or on their persons. The original Post Office Savings Bank was limited to deposits of £30 a year with a maximum balance of £150. Interest was paid at the rate of two and one-half percent per year on whole pounds in the account.


title: History of banking

text: Similar institutions were created in a number of different countries in Europe, North America, and Japan. One example was in 1881 the Dutch government created the Rijkspostspaarbank (State post savings bank), a postal savings system to encourage workers to start saving. Four decades later they added the Postcheque and Girodienst services allowing working families to make payments via post offices in the Netherlands.


title: History of banking

text: The first decade of the 20th century saw the Panic of 1907 in the US, which led to numerous runs on banks and became known as the bankers panic.


title: History of banking

text: During the Crash of 1929 preceding the Great Depression, margin requirements were only 10%. Brokerage firms, in other words, would lend $9 for every $1 an investor had deposited. When the market fell, brokers called in these loans, which could not be paid back. Banks began to fail as debtors defaulted on debt and depositors attempted to withdraw their deposits en masse, triggering multiple bank runs. Government guarantees and Federal Reserve banking regulations to prevent such panics were ineffective or not used. Bank failures led to the loss of billions of dollars in assets. Outstanding debts became heavier, because prices and incomes fell by 20–50% but the debts remained at the same dollar amount. After the panic of 1929, and during the first 10 months of 1930, 744 US banks failed. By April 1933, around $7 billion in deposits had been frozen in failed banks or those left unlicensed after the March Bank Holiday.


title: History of banking

text: Bank failures snowballed as desperate bankers called in loans that borrowers did not have time or money to repay. With future profits looking poor, capital investment and construction slowed or completely ceased. In the face of bad loans and worsening future prospects, the surviving banks became even more conservative in their lending. Banks built up their capital reserves and made fewer loans, which intensified deflationary pressures. A vicious cycle developed and the downward spiral accelerated. In all, over 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s.


title: History of banking

text: In response, many countries significantly increased financial regulation. The U.S. established the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1933, and passed the Glass–Steagall Act, which separated investment banking and commercial banking. This was to avoid more risky investment banking activities from ever again causing commercial bank failures.


title: History of banking

text: During the post second world war period and with the introduction of the Bretton Woods system in 1944, two organizations were created: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Encouraged by these institutions, commercial banks started to lend to sovereign states in the third world. This was at the same time as inflation started to rise in the west. The Gold standard was eventually abandoned in 1971 and a number of the banks were caught out and became bankrupt due to third world country debt defaults.


title: History of banking

text: This was also a time of increasing use of technology in retail banking. In 1959, banks agreed on a standard for machine readable characters (MICR) that was patented in the United States for use with cheques, which led to the first automated reader-sorter machines. In the 1960s, the first Automated Teller Machines (ATM) or Cash machines were developed and first machines started to appear by the end of the decade. Banks started to become heavy investors in computer technology to automate much of the manual processing, which began a shift by banks from large clerical staffs to new automated systems. By the 1970s the first payment systems started to develop that would lead to electronic payment systems for both international and domestic payments. The international SWIFT payment network was established in 1973 and domestic payment systems were developed around the world by banks working together with governments.


title: History of banking

text: Global banking and capital market services proliferated during the 1980s after deregulation of financial markets in a number of countries. The 1986 'Big Bang' in London allowing banks to access capital markets in new ways, which led to significant changes to the way banks operated and accessed capital. It also started a trend where retail banks started to acquire investment banks and stock brokers creating universal banks that offered a wide range of banking services. The trend also spread to the US after much of the Glass–Steagall Act was repealed in 1999 (during the Clinton Administration), this saw US retail banks embark on big rounds of mergers and acquisitions and also engage in investment banking activities.


title: History of banking

text: Financial services continued to grow through 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.


title: History of banking

text: This period saw a significant internationalization of financial markets. The increase of U.S. Foreign investments from Japan not only provided the funds to corporations in the U.S., but also helped finance the federal government.


title: History of banking

text: The dominance of U.S. financial markets was disappearing and there was 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 enabled them to expand their activities. Thus, American corporations and banks started seeking investment opportunities abroad, prompting the development in the U.S. of mutual funds specializing in trading in foreign stock markets.


title: History of banking

text: Such growing internationalization and opportunity in financial services changed the competitive landscape, as now many banks would demonstrate a preference for the "universal banking" model 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.


title: History of banking

text: The early 2000s were marked by consolidation of existing banks and entrance into the market of other financial intermediaries: non-bank financial institution. Large corporate players were beginning to find their way into the financial service community, offering competition to established banks. The main services offered included insurance, pension, mutual, money market and hedge funds, loans and credits and securities. Indeed, by the end of 2001 the market capitalisation of the world's 15 largest financial services providers included four non-banks.


title: History of banking

text: The first decade of the 21st century saw the culmination of the technical innovation in banking over the previous 30 years and saw a major shift away from traditional banking to internet banking. Starting in 2015 developments such as open banking made it easier for third parties to access bank transaction data and introduced standard API and security models.