Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici founds in 1397 in Florence the Medici Bank, which develops, until 1494, the first modern European banking system: a network of autonomous international branches (Venice, Rome, Bruges, London, Geneva, Lyon), standardized bills of exchange, generalized double-entry bookkeeping, and structured credit for states and the papacy. The ledger-and-double-entry system — codified by Luca Pacioli in 1494, a client and protégé of the Medici — is the foundation of all modern accounting. Earlier medieval banking (Templar, Lombard) operated locally and without the coordinated multi-branch architecture the Medici institutionalize.