a person who traffics and negotiates in money; who receives and remits money from place to place by commission from correspondents, or by means of bills or letters of exchange, &c.

The ancient bankers were called argentarii, and nummularii; by the Greeks, τραπεζιαῖοι, καλλιστεῖαι, and αξιομετρηταῖαι. Their chief business was to put out the money of private persons to interest; they had their boards and benches, for this purpose, in all the markets and public places, where they took in the money from some to lend it to others.