Lombard (A). A banker or moneylender, so called because the first bankers were from Lombardy, and
set up in Lombard Street (London), in the Middle Ages. The business of lending money on pawns was
carried on in England by Italian merchants or bankers as early at least as the reign of Richard I. By the 12
Edward I., a messuage was confirmed to these traders where Lombard Street now stands; but the trade
was first recognised in law by James I. The name Lombard (according to Stow) is a contraction of
Longobards. Among the richest of these Longobard merchants was the celebrated Medici family, from
whose armorial bearings the insignia of three golden balls has been derived. The Lombard bankers
exercised a monopoly in pawnbroking till the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

I; have read that the Lombards in Italy took a lot of timber as security for loans. The word "lumber"
has its origin in this. Also, the Lombards kept such an assortment of things or relatively small
value, that in England an attic storage room used to be called a "lumber room".