Lloyd's was very important for trade and shipping, but my understanding is that banking related more to the banci (tables and benches) outside the Ghetto Nuovo in Venice, as well as the Medici in Florence.

If you replace Starbucks with pubs and chalk boards with back of a handkerchief then it still exists today

Not as weird as thinking of the ecosystem built out of social media. Social media are coffee houses without even coffee.

I never made the logical connection between the historical and modern iterations of kaffeeklatsch behaviors and social media, but you just did. Kudos.