The world’s oldest bank is getting a government bailout: The oldest bank in the world still operating is Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS). It was founded in 1472 under the auspices of the Republic of Siena and is now the third largest lender in Italy by assets. ​Since the start of the year, however, MPS shares have already lost more than 80% of their value and was running out of time to meet a European Central Bank deadline of the end of this year to raise EUR 5 bn from investors through the sale of new shares to stay in business. So the government of Italy decided to step in with a EUR 20 bn bailout package “as a last-gasp private sector rescue plan,” according to The Financial Times. “The government is expected to inject capital, taking its stake in the bank much above the current 4 per cent. Rome could even take a majority stake, according to people close to the bank.” MPS’s fortunes have “declined since the ill-timed [EUR 9 bn] cash acquisition of its local rival Banca Antonveneta on the cusp of the financial crisis.” The move by Italy’s government is already facing opposition, particularly by Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement, which calls for the full nationalisation of struggling banks.

…Another historical banking story: The Knights Templar were the first international bankers in the world, minus the crazy Dan Brown storyline. Tim Harford, one of the smartest and best orators in our view, presented their impact on the history of modern banking on his new-ish BBC podcast 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy. They dedicated themselves to the defense of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem, providing them with a service that allowed them to rid pilgrims of carrying large amount of cash that would make them targets for robbers by issuing them letters of credit. “A pilgrim could leave his cash at Temple Church in London and withdraw it in Jerusalem … The Knights Templar were the Western Union of the Crusades,” Harford explains. The power the Knights Templar accumulated did not leave European kings happy. Eventually, “Templars were tortured and forced to confess any sin the Inquisition could imagine. The order of the Templars was disbanded by the pope. The London temple was rented out to lawyers, and the last grandmaster of the Templars … publicly burned to death” (runtime 12:16).