outside Sweden―, a comparatively high deposit rate, which led to an increase in the deposit, depreciation and amortisation business ― the bank's capital was made up of deposits from the public and not, as with previous banks, through private banknote issuance. The business idea was that, if the savers left the money tied up in an account for a longer period of time, they would receive a higher interest rate. In 1861, he founded Stockholms Hypotekskassa, Stockholm's mortgage bank. In 1863, he participated in founding Skandinaviska kreditaktiebolaget with Oscar Ekman, Oscar Dickson, Olof Wijk the Younger and the Dane Carl Frederik Tietgen (which later would become Skandinaviska Banken in 1937 and finally merged with Wallenbergs' Stockholms Enskilda Bank in 1972), and in 1867, he was Sweden's representative at the International Monetary Conference in Paris, at which conference he was introduced to Napoleon III and befriended people in the political and financial circles of France, and afterwards maintained close relations with them, among others, Félix Esquirou de Parieu, Eugène Rouher, Lionel de Moustier, Michel Chevalier, Léon Say, Pierre Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. Internationally, he was well-connected and established a network with bankers in foreign countries which proved faithful later in life when the public opinion of him in Sweden was very negative. He often visited his foreign friends during his travels to France, Germany and United Kingdom; in Paris, he met with the banking firms Mallet Frères et Cie and Crédit Lyonnais, in London, with the German-Danish-British banking firms Frederick Huth & Co, C. J. Hambro &. Son and Frühling & Göschen, and in Hamburg, with Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. He was also a member of several national committees, including the committee regarding proposals for laws of prospecting, the committe on constitutions concerning weights and measures (which introduced the meter system), the banking committee, the committee on laws concerning companies, and a chairman of Stockholm's trade and shipping board. In addition to the modernisation of banking legislation, Wallenberg contributed to the increased rights for women, among other things, by being the first in Europe to allow women to work in banks (see Alida Rossander), and allow women to open their own bank accounts. A.O., which he is called in the family, also became involved in many industries, including Atlas Diesel (which later would become Atlas Copco), Hofors AB, several railway companies such as Gefle-Dala järnväg, Bergslagernas järnväg, shipping companies, breweries such as