Italians essentially invented modern banking. And they make amazing cheese. Why not combine the two? Credito Emiliano is one of those ideas you get when you have a little too much wine and parmesan. It’s a bank whose system of credit relies on the deposit and collateralization of cheese. Parmigiano-Reggiano to be exact, according to a video by Great Big Story (runtime 2:23). Parmigiano-Reggiano is a special kind of cheese because it needs to be aged for 16 to 36 months, and a wheel can be worth thousands of USD, making it a safe long-term investment for the bank. The 300,000 wheels of this cheese that the bank has on deposit in special warehouses are now worth over EUR 160 mn.

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