When and where did 'Templars invented banking' first appear in print?
Research question: When and in what publication did the phrase 'Templars invented banking' first appear, and which earlier source, if any, does the popular claim cite?
The provided facts do not identify when or in which publication the phrase 'Templars invented banking' first appeared, and they do not name any earlier source that the popular claim cites. The records show that King Philip IV was heavily indebted to the Knights Templar, giving him a financial motive against the order 1. They also show that the historiographical study of the Templars' financial operations began in 1889 3. Neither fact addresses the origin of the phrase itself. The newest fact provided is from 2026 2, so it is recent relative to October 2026, but it is not about the banking claim.
Sources
"Philip was substantially in debt to the Knights Templar"Philip IV of France
"Baldwin gave them quarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount — that is, in the al-Aqsa mosque, which the Latins had converted to their own use and which they believed, wrongly, to stand on the site of the Temple of Solomon. The knights were housed on the Temple, and so they became the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, and then simply the Templars."Answerable To One Man (2026)
"El presente artículo analiza la evolución historiográfica del estudio de las operaciones financieras templarías, desde su inicio en 1889 hasta la actualidad."El Temple como Casa de Banca : consideraciones historiográficas y bibliográficas (2003)