The basic business model banking has not changed much since the beginning of formal commercial banking. Banks, for the most part, have stayed true to their original tradition of safety, trust, and, most of all, confidence. Sometimes banking turns into a soulless dispassionate business where all that matters are the bottom lines, bonuses, margins, and ratios. One of the best dramatizations of traditional banking was in an episode of Game of Thrones when Stannis Baratheon visited the Iron Bank of Braavos requesting (if not demanding) to be loaned gold in order to challenge for the Iron Throne. |