Most of today’s banking services are believed to have been practiced even in ancient times particularly in places like Phoenicia, China and Greece. It was a usual practice for temples to make loans from their treasuries. The Greeks were able to develop a system of credit and is known to be the first in coining money. However, it was the Roman Empire which was widely recognized as having a highly developed banking system performing such functions as accepting deposits of money, making loans and purchasing mortgages.
The Bank of Barcelona in Spain was the first bank to offer most of the basic banking functions we are familiar with today. It held deposits, exchanged currency, carried out lending operations and introduced the bank check. For a long time, banking remained in the hands of powerful statesmen and wealthy private bankers.
