The concept of the checking account did not develop until the first years of the 16th century. It arose in the Netherlands while Amsterdam was a valuable center for commercial pursuits. Merchants, who were building up sizeable hoards of money, required a safe location to keep their cash.

"Cashiers" opened up shop to meet this want. Cashiers would hold on to the money for a charge on the account. You may not be a 16th century trader, nevertheless, is this beginning to seem familiar yet?

Before long a great need came about because of growing competition as even more individuals joined the trend of becoming cashiers. This caused the cost of having your funds held by a cashier to plummet. In addition, it forced the cashiers themselves to begin seeking clever ways to charm customers.

The innovative methods of attracting customers took the form of value added services granted to a client. Very similar to the financial institutions that we know of today, these cashiers needed a competitive edge to try and compete for customers. Modern gimmicks are hard to compare to those of the early 1500s. Still, it’s important to take note that now we tend to forget how much history the checking account has. Back in the day it was still developing because banking was in effect still in its infancy.

The notion of one who could possibly enter with a writ from a customer that would allow them to take funds from the client’s account signified a never before conceived method of banking. This was one of the fresh offerings that came about to meet the mounting demand and to woo customers. This type of note today is referred to a "Check." Much like a cancelled check is held on to for perpetuity, the written note from the depositor was retained back then to give evidence of the transport of capital.

This new development really gave a means to the trade industry allowing for the transfer of wealth to take place in a more efficient way. Such an improvement in efficiency helped to improve the solvency of trade and of the commercial profession.

Because of the transience of the traders, the concept of the checking account quickly spread to additional areas beyond the Netherlands. These areas included England, a chief global power, and her hundreds of colonies upon which the sun would ‘never set.’ Among those colonies included all that existed within the boarders of The United States of America.

This revolutionary method extend to the first US colonies in 1681. Massachusetts land owners began mortgaging their plots of land to the cashiers who then in turn began providing accounts that the customers could subsequently draw on to write notes or checks.

The full development of the checking account did not arrive until afterward. It was not until the 18th century that checks in the sense that people know them at present appeared. In England, banks started printing checks for their customers. Such checks featured serial numbers to assist with tracking them. It really was not until this time that the title "check" began being utilized to refer to these financial notes.

The seventeen hundreds truly began the period during which these, at one time, fresh services began to be homogeneous and common. This is the time when an adequate number of banks started to standardize their checks that there arrived the predicament of getting checks cleared. This caused the making of the first clearing houses devoted to formalizing the processing of checks.