Several key concepts that underpin contemporary credit relationships and payments are disseminated in this chapter: notably the notion of settlement with novation. A system of financial accounts then unpacks how early deposit-taking banks in combination with bills of exchange facilitated economic activity. The final section of the chapter argues that while single-layered financial money systems are superior to commodity money systems (with or without non-deposit taking banks), early deposit-taking banks were problematic as they proved to be inherently unstable.