In one of the books about Templars I read that the Templars ware the first Christian global international banking institution. They ware doing currency exchange, international money transfers, government loans, swaps, investing and etc. They ware VERY VERY rich and that is why they could pay for a very powerful army as well. E.g. a good full knight armour suit price was a village of 200 serf families, including the serfs and the land. Many ware after their money and that is why the order was destroyed.