History of banking in the context of List of banking families

Banking families are families that have been involved in banking for multiple generations, generally in the modern era as owners or co-owners of banks, which are often named after their families. Banking families have been important in the history of banking, especially before the 20th century. Banking families have existed and continue to exist in numerous countries.

A money changer is a person or organization whose business is the exchange of coins or currency of one country for that of another. This trade was a predecessor of modern banking.

The advent of paper money in the mid-17th century and the development of modern banking and floating exchange rates in the 20th century allowed a currency exchange market to develop. This provided a way for banks and other specialist financial companies such as bureaux de change and other similar financial entities to easily change one country's money for another, and with the added confidence of transparency.

A goldsmith banker was a business role that emerged in seventeenth century London from the London goldsmiths where they gradually expanded their services to include storage of wealth, providing loans, transferring money and providing bills of exchange that would lead to the development of cheques. Some of the concepts were brought over from Amsterdam where goldsmiths would provide gold storage and issue chits that started to be used as a means of exchange. The goldsmith banker became a key development in the history of banking that would lead to modern banking.