Back جبل التقوى Arabic Mont de pietat Catalan Monte di Pietà German Monte de piedad Spanish Mont-de-piété French Monte de piedade Galician Monte di Pietà Italian モンテ・ディ・ピエタ Japanese Berg van barmhartigheid Dutch Bank pobożny Polish
A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operation.
The institutions called monte di Pietà originated in 15th-century Italy, where these institutions gave poor people access to loans with reasonable interest rates. It used funds from charitable donors as capital, and made loans to the poor so they could avoid going to exploitative lenders. Borrowers offered valuables as collateral, making the mount of piety more like a pawn shop than a bank.