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There are plenty of Italian and Swiss banks that are over 300 years old. They’ve survived reformations, wars including World Wars, plagues, purges, and the tran

There are plenty of Italian and Swiss banks that are over 300 years old. They’ve survived reformations, wars including World Wars, plagues, purges, and the transition from feudal monarchies to empire and to democracy. For example, the British banking giant Barclays was founded in 1690. Here’s a partial list of other ancient banks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_banks_in_continuous_operation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_banks_in_contin... I think it’s more reasonable to assume that they’ll survive any future calamity (especially something so close as 20-30 years) than to assume that our current age is somehow special.

_tom_ 5y ago
And Bearings Bank was founded in 1762. And made it to 1995 before imploding. Likely to survive, yes. But at least one is likely to fail over any reasonable period.
necovek 5y ago
When worrying about surviving for hundreds of years, you need to compare with the data about how many have existed for hundreds of years and then folded anyway. Note that the above list includes a bunch of "national banks" which were founded at the peak of "national movement" in 1800s (as "nations" started forming "national countries") — with many of them, you can't really leave a deposit and they instead regulate an economy of a country (not sure about "many", but at least National Bank of Serbia is one of those).
satellite2 5y ago
But I doubt Barclays is currently upholding contracts signed 200 years ago.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  Benjamin Franklin's endowments to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia are still being maintained as trusts to this day.
- thinkingemote 5y ago
  There are hundreds of thousands of trusts being run to this day that were set up over 200 years ago, mostly to do with land.
novaRom 5y ago
In 1941 when the Nazi government stripped German Jews of their citizenship, the Swiss authorities applied the law to German Jews living in Switzerland by declaring them stateless; when in February 1945 Swiss authorities blocked German Bank accounts held in Switzerland they declared that the German Jews were no longer stateless, but were once again German and blocked their Swiss bank accounts as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergier_commission https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergier_commission

_tom_ 5y ago

And Bearings Bank was founded in 1762. And made it to 1995 before imploding. Likely to survive, yes. But at least one is likely to fail over any reasonable period.

necovek 5y ago

When worrying about surviving for hundreds of years, you need to compare with the data about how many have existed for hundreds of years and then folded anyway. Note that the above list includes a bunch of "national banks" which were founded at the peak of "national movement" in 1800s (as "nations" started forming "national countries") — with many of them, you can't really leave a deposit and they instead regulate an economy of a country (not sure about "many", but at least National Bank of Serbia is one of those).

satellite2 5y ago

But I doubt Barclays is currently upholding contracts signed 200 years ago.

Apocryphon 5y ago
Benjamin Franklin's endowments to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia are still being maintained as trusts to this day.
thinkingemote 5y ago
There are hundreds of thousands of trusts being run to this day that were set up over 200 years ago, mostly to do with land.

novaRom 5y ago

In 1941 when the Nazi government stripped German Jews of their citizenship, the Swiss authorities applied the law to German Jews living in Switzerland by declaring them stateless; when in February 1945 Swiss authorities blocked German Bank accounts held in Switzerland they declared that the German Jews were no longer stateless, but were once again German and blocked their Swiss bank accounts as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergier_commission https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergier_commission