Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the world’s oldest bank and it needs financial aid from the state. The bank is the third largest bank in Italy. It was founded in 1472 and has been open for business since then. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena will be the first in Italy to receive aid, according to IBTimesUK.
The connoisseur of fine arts will be interested in the Monte dei Paschi di Siena website, as Sienese art from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries in the Monte dei Paschi di Siena collection can be viewed. The bank hosts an art collection and a large number of priceless historical documents spanning the centuries of its existence, which is normally not open to the public.
The most recent acquisition cost the bank nearly one million Euro, and the artist is Segna di Bonaventura.
“The Monte di Pietà, or Monte Pio, was established on 27 February 1472 by resolution by the General Council of the Republic, for the purpose of granting loans to “poor or miserable or needy persons” at a minimal interest rate. By origin it is a fully secular institution, authorized from the beginning to charge an interest rate of 7.5%, thus not aspiring to any kind of speculation, but also avoiding having to make the interest-free loans recommended by the Franciscan Friars Minor, who supported the Monte dei Pietà. “Monte” (“heap”) in this case indicates a collection of money, offered or deposited and then distributed for purposes of welfare or charity.”
