Oldest continuously operating bank

The oldest continuously operating bank is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which was founded in the Republic of Siena (today Siena, Italy) on 4 March 1472. It was founded as a kind of charitable loan agency called a Mount of Piety, but assumed its current form as a commercial bank in 1624. It is still in operation as of 10 February 2025, 552 years 343 days after its founding.

Mounts of Piety were renaissance financial institutions developed to reduce the population's reliance on predatory money lenders. They were established as charities, with capital donated by wealthy patrons and trade guilds, and lent money at comparatively low interest rates to ordinary people. These loans were secured against personal property, making them somewhat similar to modern pawnbrokers. They do not meet modern definitions of banks, but served a similar role prior to the emergence of retail banking and many Montes developed into conventional banks. Mexico’s Nacional Monte de Piedad is the last surviving example that operates more-or-less as these institutions were originally envisioned.

The oldest merchant bank is Berenberg Bank, which was founded in Hamburg, Germany, in 1590 – though again, its activities did not meet the modern definition of a bank until significantly later, the company's official history describes its original form as a "trading house".