Banking Basics

Banks keep your money safe and offer an alternative to carrying piles of money around with you all the time.

The first banks were religious temples in Greece that let merchants store their money and cash in notes at other temples, instead of carrying around coins.

In the United States, the first bank was started by Alexander Hamilton in 1791, but it wasn't until the 1860s that a standardized, national banking system was developed.

Today, the Federal Reserve (Fed) monitors an…