1.
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
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The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the worlds 10th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. Located in Frankfurt, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse AG and it is located in the district of Innenstadt and within the central business district known as Bankenviertel. The trading indices are DAX, DAXplus, CDAX, DivDAX, LDAX, MDAX, SDAX, TecDAX, VDAX, through its Deutsche Börse Cash Market business section, Deutsche Börse AG now operates two trading venues at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Xetra is the market for exchange trading in German equities. In 2015,90 per cent of all trading in shares at all German exchanges was transacted through the Xetra, with regard to DAX listings, Xetra has 60 per cent market share throughout Europe. Trading times on trading days are from 9.00 a. m. to 5.30 p. m, the prices on Xetra serve as the basis for calculating the DAX, the best-known German share index. Over 200 trading participants from 16 European countries, plus Hong Kong, Börse Frankfurt is the trading venue for mainly private investors with more than one million securities of German and international issuers. So named Specialists on the trading floor attend to the trading of the securities, trading at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is governed by clear rules, which apply equally for all trading participants. With a view to improving the continuity of prices and to avoid mistrades, several mechanisms are in place for the trading venues Xetra. These include volatility interruption, market order interruption, and liquidity interruption measures, the origins of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange go back to medieval trade fairs in the 11th century. By the 16th century Frankfurt developed into a wealthy and busy city with a based on trade. In 1585 a bourse was established to set up fixed currency exchange rates, during the following centuries Frankfurt developed into one of the worlds first stock exchanges - next to London and Paris. Bankers like Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Max Warburg had substantial influence on Frankfurts financial trade, in 1879 Frankfurt Stock Exchange moved into its new building at Börsenplatz. During the 1990s the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was also bourse for the Neuer Markt as part of the worldwide dot-com boom, in 1993 the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse became Deutsche Börse AG, operating businesses for the exchange. Since then the profits from the presence of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. In 2002 and 2004 Deutsche Börse was in advanced negotiations to take over London Stock Exchange, financial Market Integration in a Wider European Union International financial centres, rivals or partner
2.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
3.
Fugger
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Alongside the Welser family, the family controlled much of the European economy in the sixteenth century and accumulated enormous wealth. This banking family replaced the de Medici family, who influenced all of Europe during the Renaissance, the Fuggers took over many of the Medicis assets and their political power and influence. They were closely affiliated with the House of Habsburg whose rise to power they financed. Unlike the citizenry of their hometown, they never converted to the Augsburg Confession, Jakob Fugger „the Rich“ was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511 and created Imperial Count of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn in 1514. The company was dissolved in 1657, however the Fuggers remained wealthy landowners and ruled the County of Kirchberg, the Babenhausen branch became Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803, the Glött branch princes in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1914. The founder of the family was Johann Fugger, a weaver at Graben and his son, also called Johann, settled in Augsburg, and the first reference to the Fugger family there is his arrival, recorded in the tax register of 1367. He married Klara Widolf and became an Augsburg citizen, after Klaras death, he married Elizabeth Gattermann. He joined the guild, and by 1396 he was ranked high in the list of taxpayers. He added the business of a merchant to that of a weaver and his eldest son, Andreas Fugger, was a merchant in the weaving trade, and was nicknamed Fugger the Rich after buying land and other properties. The Fugger family itemized and inventoried a large number of Asian rugs, andreass son, Lukas Fugger, was granted arms by the Emperor Frederick III, a golden deer on a blue background, and he was soon nicknamed the Fugger of the Deer. He was too ambitious, however, and went bankrupt and his descendants served their cousins of the famous younger branch and later went to Silesia. Contemporary members of the Fugger of the Deer are descendants of Matthäus Fugger, the current patriarch is Markus Fugger von dem Rech. Hans Fuggers younger son, Jakob the Elder, founded another branch of the family and this branch progressed more steadily and they became known as the Fuggers of the Lily after their chosen arms of a flowering lily on a gold and blue background. Jakob was a weaver, a merchant, and an alderman. He married Barbara Basinger, the daughter of a goldsmith and his fortune progressed, and by 1461, he was the twelfth richest man in Augsburg. Thus began a profitable relationship between the Fugger family and the Habsburgs. With the help of their brother in Rome, Markus, Ulrich and his brother George handled remittances to the court of monies for the sale of indulgences. From 1508 to 1515 they leased the Roman mint, when the Fuggers made their first loan to the Archduke Sigismund in 1487, they took as security an interest in silver and copper mines in the Tirol
4.
Berenberg family
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The Berenberg family was a Belgian-origined Hanseatic family of merchants, bankers and senators in Hamburg, with branches in London, Livorno and other European cities. The Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants and became involved in merchant banking in the 17th century, having existed continuously since 1590, Berenberg Bank is the worlds oldest surviving merchant bank. The Berenberg banking family became extinct in the line with Elisabeth Berenberg, she was married to Johann Hinrich Gossler. A branch of the family was ennobled by Prussia as Barons of Berenberg-Gossler. Several members of the Berenberg and Gossler families served in the Senate of Hamburg from 1735, richard J. Evans describes the family as one of Hamburgs great business families. The Gossler Islands in Antarctica are named for the family, Elisabeth Berenberg and Johann Hinrich Gossler presently have descendants with names including Gossler, Berenberg-Gossler, Wegner, Paus, Bernstorff and other names. Members of the Berenberg family have founded other companies. A London branch of the Berenberg family were prominent merchants in the West Indies trade from the 17th century, the Berenberg family originates from the Bergisches Land region in the Duchy of Berg. Its earliest known ancestor, Thillmann Berenberg, was born on the Groß-Berenberg estate in 1465, the growing linen industry of Brabant led Thillmanns son, Jan Berenberg, to take his family to Lier in Antwerp, where he became a burgher in 1515. He was married to Engele Segers, and they were the parents of Paul Berenberg, who was a merchant in Antwerp. Paul Berenberg was the father of Hans and Paul Berenberg, the two brothers married sisters Anna and Francina Snellinck, daughters of the Antwerp merchant Andries Snellinck and Françoise de Rénialme. The Berenbergs were one of 130 Dutch families that had become Lutheran during the Reformation, during the Eighty Years War, the family fled Lier and settled in the nearby city of Antwerp. The family left Antwerp in 1585 as a result of the Fall of Antwerp, many Dutch refugees settled in Hamburg, among them the brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg. In 1590, they founded the merchant house now known as Berenberg Bank and they were originally cloth merchants and active in the import-export business. In Hamburg, the Berenbergs initially formed part of a Dutch colony and intermarried with the citys leading Hanseatic families, while a number of Dutch refugees became Hamburg citizens, Hans and Paul Berenberg were not prepared to take that step. In 1605, the Hamburg council issued a decree that gave the Dutch merchants the rights as the burghers of Hamburg. Their son, Cornelius Berenberg, was the first to engage in merchant banking and developed the company into a successful merchant house. He forged trade links with France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, family connections of the Berenbergs were instrumental to the development, especially in Livorno and Lisbon with its colonies of wealthy Dutch merchants
5.
Automated teller machine
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According to the ATM Industry Association, there are now close to 3 million ATMs installed worldwide. Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number which must match the PIN stored in the chip on the card or in the financial institutions database. Using an ATM, customers can access their deposit or credit accounts in order to make a variety of transactions such as cash withdrawals, check balances. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that in which the account is denominated the money will be converted at an official exchange rate. Thus, ATMs often provide the best possible exchange rates for foreign travellers, the idea of out-of-hours cash distribution developed from bankers needs in Asia, Europe and North America. Little is known of the Japanese device other than it was called Computer Loan Machine, the device was operational in 1966. In the US patent record, Luther George Simjian has been credited with developing a prior art device, specifically his 132nd patent, which was first filed on 30 June 1960. The roll-out of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed by a couple of years, an experimental Bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance. The Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine and did not have cash dispensing features and it is widely accepted that the first ATM was put into use by Barclays Bank in its Enfield Town branch in north London, United Kingdom, on 27 June 1967. This machine was inaugurated by English comedy actor Reg Varney and this instance of the invention is credited to the engineering team led by John Shepherd-Barron of printing firm De La Rue, who was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. Shepherd-Barron stated, It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash. The Barclays-De La Rue machine beat the Swedish saving banks and a company called Metiors machine by a nine days. The online version of the Swedish machine is listed to have been operational on 6 May 1968, the collaboration of a small start-up called Speytec and Midland Bank developed a fourth machine which was marketed after 1969 in Europe and the US by the Burroughs Corporation. The patent for this device was filed on September 1969 by John David Edwards, Leonard Perkins, John Henry Donald, Peter Lee Chappell, Sean Benjamin Newcombe & Malcom David Roe. Both the DACS and MD2 accepted only a token or voucher which was retained by the machine while the Speytec worked with a card with a magnetic stripe at the back. They used principles including Carbon-14 and low-coercivity magnetism in order to make more difficult. The idea of a PIN stored on the card was developed by a British engineer working on the MD2 named James Goodfellow in 1965, the essence of this system was that it enabled the verification of the customer with the debited account without human intervention. This patent is also the earliest instance of a complete currency dispenser system in the patent record and this patent was filed on 5 March 1968 in the US and granted on 1 December 1970
6.
Deutsche Bank
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Deutsche Bank AG is a German global banking and financial services company with its headquarters in the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt. It has more than 100,000 employees in over 70 countries, and has a presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific. In 2009, Deutsche Bank was the largest foreign exchange dealer in the world with a share of 21 percent. The company was a component of the STOXX Europe 50 stock market index until being replaced on that index on August 8,2016, the bank offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business clients. Deutsche Bank’s core business is investment banking, which represents 50% of equity, 75% of leverage assets, in January 2014, Deutsche Bank reported a €1.2 billion pre-tax loss for the fourth quarter of 2013. This came after analysts had predicted a profit of nearly €600 million, revenues slipped by 16% versus the prior year. On 7 June 2015, the then co-CEOs, Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, Anshu Jains resignation took effect on 30 June 2015, but he provided consultancy to the bank until January 2016. Juergen Fitschen temporarily continued as joint CEO until 19 May 2016, the appointment of John Cryan as joint CEO was announced, effective 1 July 2016, he became sole CEO at the end of Juergen Fitschens term. In January 2016, Deutsche Bank pre-announced a 2015 loss before income taxes of approximately €6.1 billion, Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 as a specialist bank for foreign trade. The banks statute was adopted on 22 January 1870, and on 10 March 1870 the Prussian government granted it a banking licence, three of the founders were Georg Siemens whose fathers cousin had founded Siemens and Halske, Adelbert Delbrück and L. Bamberger. Its first foray overseas came shortly afterwards, in Shanghai and London followed sometime by South America, major projects in the early years of the bank included the Northern Pacific Railroad in the US and the Baghdad Railway. In Germany, the bank was instrumental in the financing of bond offerings of steel company Krupp, the second half of the 1890s saw the beginning of a new period of expansion at Deutsche Bank. The bank formed alliances with large banks, giving itself an entrée into Germanys main industrial regions. Joint ventures were symptomatic of the then under way in the German banking industry. In addition, the bank rapidly perceived the value of specialist institutions for the promotion of foreign business, the immediate postwar period was a time of liquidations. Having already lost most of its assets, Deutsche Bank was obliged to sell other holdings. A great deal of energy went into shoring up what had been achieved, but there was new business, too, some of which was to have an impact for a long time to come. The bank played a significant role in the establishment of the production company, UFA
7.
American Express
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The American Express Company, also known as Amex, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattans Three World Financial Center in New York City, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the company is best known for its credit card, charge card, and travelers cheque businesses. Amex cards account for approximately 24% of the dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US. BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 22nd most valuable brand in the world, Fortune listed Amex as one of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the World. The companys logo, adopted in 1958, is a Centurion whose image appears on the travelers cheques, charge cards. In 1850, American Express was started as an express business in Buffalo. It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the companies owned by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo. Wells and Fargo also started Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852 when Butterfield, American Express initially established its headquarters in a building at the intersection of Jay Street and Hudson Street in what was later called the Tribeca section of Manhattan. For years it enjoyed a monopoly on the movement of express shipments throughout New York State. In 1874, American Express moved its headquarters to 65 Broadway in what was becoming the Financial District of Manhattan, in 1854, the American Express Co. purchased a lot on Vesey Street in New York City as the site for its stables. A stable was constructed in 1867, five blocks north at 4–8 Hubert Street, in 1880, American Express built a new warehouse behind the Broadway Building at 46 Trinity Place. The designer is unknown, but it has a façade of brick arches that are reminiscent of pre-skyscraper New York, American Express has long been out of this building, but it still bears a terracotta seal with the American Express Eagle. In 1890–91 the company constructed a new building by Edward H. Kendall on the site of its former headquarters on Hudson Street. By 1903, the company had assets of some $28 million, to reflect this, the company purchased the Broadway buildings and site. The old buildings, dubbed by the New York Times as among the ancient landmarks of lower Broadway, were inadequate for such a rapidly expanding concern, after some delays due to the war in Europe, the 21-story neo-classical American Express Co. Building was constructed in 1916–17 to the design of James L. Aspinwall, of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker, the building consolidated the two lots of the former buildings with a single address,65 Broadway. This building was part of the Express Row section of lower Broadway at the time, kenny, and Standard & Poors, who has renamed the building for itself. American Express extended its reach nationwide by arranging affiliations with other companies, railroads
8.
Economy of Germany
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Germany is the largest national economy in Europe, the fourth-largest by nominal GDP in the world, and fifth by GDP. The country is a member of the European Union and the Eurozone. The economic model of Germany is based on the concept of the market economy. In 2016, Germany recorded the highest trade surplus in the world worth $310 billion, Germany is the third largest exporter in the world with 1.21 trillion euros in goods and services exported in 2016. The service sector contributes around 70% of the total GDP, industry 29. 1%, exports account for 41% of national output. Germany is rich in timber, iron ore, potash, salt, uranium, nickel, copper, energy in Germany is sourced predominantly by fossil fuels, followed by nuclear power second, then gas, wind, biomass, hydro and solar. Germany is the first major industrialized nation to commit to the energy transition called Energiewende. Germany is the producer of wind turbines in the world. Renewables now produce over 27% of electricity consumed in Germany,99 percent of all German companies belong to the German Mittelstand, small and medium-sized enterprises, which are mostly family-owned. ON, Bayer, and RWE. Germany is the top location for trade fairs. Around two thirds of the leading trade fairs take place in Germany. The largest annual trade fairs and congresses are held in several German cities such as Hanover, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig. The Industrial Revolution in Germany occurred a century later than in England, France, the establishment of the Deutscher Zollverein and the expansion of railway systems were the main drivers of Germanys industrial revolution and political union. In 1834, tariff barriers between German states were eliminated, between 1845 and 1870,5,000 more miles of rail had been built and in 1850 Germany was building its own locomotives. Over time, other German states joined the union and started linking their railroads. Another factor which propelled German industry forward was the unification of the monetary system, the Deutsche Mark was introduced in 1871, a new monetary coinage system backed by gold. However, this system did not fully come into use as silver coins retained their value until 1907, the victory of Prussia over Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War marked the end of French hegemony in Europe and resulted in the creation of the German Empire in 1871. Regarding politics and society, between 1881 and 1889 Chancellor Otto von Bismarck promoted laws that provided insurance and improved working conditions
9.
History of Germany
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Following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Franks conquered the other West Germanic tribes. When the Frankish Empire was divided among Charlemagnes heirs in 843, in 962, Otto I became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the medieval German state. In the High Middle Ages, the dukes, princes. Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church after 1517, as the states became Protestant. The two parts of the Holy Roman Empire clashed in the Thirty Years War, which was ruinous to the twenty million civilians living in both states. The Thirty Years War brought tremendous destruction to Germany, more than 1/4 of the population,1648 marked the effective end of the Holy Roman Empire and the beginning of the modern nation-state system, with Germany divided into numerous independent states, such as Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, feudalism fell away, the Industrial Revolution modernized the German economy, led to the rapid growth of cities and to the emergence of the Socialist movement in Germany. Prussia, with its capital Berlin, grew in power, German universities became world-class centers for science and the humanities, while music and the arts flourished. The new Reichstag, a parliament, had only a limited role in the imperial government. Germany joined the other powers in colonial expansion in Africa and the Pacific, Germany was the dominant power on the continent. By 1900, its rapidly expanding industrial economy passed Britains, allowing a naval race, Germany led the Central Powers in World War I against France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States. Defeated and partly occupied, Germany was forced to pay war reparations by the Treaty of Versailles and was stripped of its colonies as well as Polish areas and Alsace-Lorraine. The German Revolution of 1918–19 deposed the emperor and the kings and princes, leading to the establishment of the Weimar Republic. In the early 1930s, the worldwide Great Depression hit Germany hard, as unemployment soared, in 1933, the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler came to power and quickly established a totalitarian regime. Political opponents were killed or imprisoned, after forming a pact with the Soviet Union in 1939, Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe. After a Phoney War in spring 1940 the German blitzkrieg swept Scandinavia, only the British Commonwealth and Empire stood opposed, along with Greece. Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, in 1942, the German invasion of the Soviet Union faltered, and after the United States had entered the war, Britain became the base for massive Anglo-American bombings of German cities. Germany fought the war on multiple fronts through 1942–1944, however following the Allied invasion of Normandy, millions of ethnic Germans fled from Communist areas into West Germany, which experienced rapid economic expansion, and became the dominant economy in Western Europe
10.
Bankenviertel
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Bankenviertel is the name of the central business district in Frankfurt, Germany. It designates an area in the city centre, where many banks, insurance companies and it is the most important financial centre in Germany and one of the largest in Europe along with La Défense in the Paris aire urbaine and Londons City and Canary Wharf. Having no official or strict borders, it is defined as the western part of the Innenstadt, the southern part of the Westend. Its most central square is the Opernplatz, the Bankenviertel is not an official city district and has no officially or strictly defined borders. It stretches across three city districts, the part of the Innenstadt, the southern part of the Westend. Many of the largest banks in Germany, e. g. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank and Helaba, have their headquarters here. It is also the place where most of Frankfurts high-rises and skyscrapers are located, furthermore, the area on both sides of the Mainzer Landstraße from Taunusanlage to Platz der Republik and the Bockenheimer Landstraße, beginning at the Opernplatz, are part of the area. The Bankenviertel is very accessible with the public transport system. Eight of nine suburban S-Bahn lines serve the stations Hauptwache, Taunusanlage, the tram lines 11 and 12 stop at Frankfurt Central Station and Willy-Brandt-Platz, and the lines 16 and 17 link the central station and the Frankfurt Trade Fair area
11.
Credit card
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The card issuer creates a revolving account and grants a line of credit to the cardholder, from which the cardholder can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance. A credit card is different from a card, where it requires the balance to be repaid in full each month. In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers a continuing balance of debt, a credit card also differs from a cash card, which can be used like currency by the owner of the card. Credit cards have a printed or embossed bank card number complying with the ISO/IEC7812 numbering standard, the card numbers prefix, called the Bank Identification Number, is the sequence of digits at the beginning of the number that determine the bank to which a credit card number belongs. This is the first six digits for MasterCard and Visa cards, the next nine digits are the individual account number, and the final digit is a validity check code. Both of these standards are maintained and further developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17/WG1, Credit cards have a magnetic stripe conforming to the ISO/IEC7813. Many modern credit cards have a chip embedded in them as a security feature. In addition to the credit card number, credit cards also carry issue and expiration dates, as well as extra codes such as issue numbers. Not all credit cards have the sets of extra codes nor do they use the same number of digits. The concept of using a card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward. Bellamy used the credit card eleven times in this novel, although this referred to a card for spending a citizens dividend from the government. Charge coins and other items were used from the late 19th century to the 1930s. They came in various shapes and sizes, with materials made out of celluloid, copper, aluminum, steel, each charge coin usually had a little hole, enabling it to be put in a key ring, like a key. These charge coins were given to customers who had charge accounts in department stores, hotels. A charge coin usually had the account number along with the merchants name. The charge coin offered a simple and fast way to copy a charge account number to the sales slip and this sped the process of copying, previously done by handwriting. It also reduced the number of errors, by having a form of numbers on the sales slip. Because the customers name was not on the coin, almost anyone could use it
12.
Commerzbank
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Commerzbank AG is a global banking and financial services company founded in 1870 with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It offers its clients retail and commercial financing services, investment banking services, asset management, Commerzbank was founded in 1870 by individual and merchant bankers in Hamburg, Germany. Woermann was the first chairman of the board of Commerz- und Disconto-Bank from 1870. The bank grew through a series of over 50 mergers, acquisitions and restructures in the period through hyperinflation. In 1940, the name Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, by which the bank was known, was officially adopted. With the division of Europe after World War II, three banks were united in 1958 to form Commerzbank AG, which had its headquarters in Düsseldorf. Commerzbank stepped up its financing activities and started expanding around the globe. From 1970 onwards, the administrative activities were shifted to Frankfurt am Main. What was left of Commerzbank Securities was folded into a division of the bank called Corporates. To get “sustainable profitability”, in 2016 Commerzbank planned to cut 9,600 jobs or about a fifth of its workforce in 4 years, the Commerzbank Tower is the tallest building in Frankfurt and in Germany, measuring 300,1 m to the top of the antenna. The 56-story building was designed by British architect Norman Foster and was Europes first ecological skyscraper, for more than a decade, Commerzbank was involved in laundering hundreds of billions of dollars out of Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar, against US sanctions. Media related to Commerzbank at Wikimedia Commons Official website