Stamps with the theme Banking and Insurance

The first records of the kind of activity we know today as banking can be traced back to around 2000 BC in Assyria and Babylonia, where merchants made loans to farmers and traders who transported goods between cities. Deposits initially consisted of grain and later other goods including livestock, farming tools and then precious metals such as gold. Temples and palaces were thought to be the safest places to store gold as they were constantly guarded and well built. As temples were considered to be sacred places, they presented an extra deterrent to possible thieves. In the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, lenders based in temples made loans but also began to accept deposits and change money. Around this time, there is also evidence of the development of money-lending in China and India. The development of banking in the modern sense of the word can be traced back to medieval Italy and later spread through Europe. During the last century, the rapid development in telecommunication and computing systems resulted in major changes in the way banks operated and allowed them to greatly increase in size and geographic spread. In recent years, there has been a significant number of bank failures, including some of the world's largest banks, and much debate about bank regulation.