The decimals from 0.01 to 0.99 make up the first 99 basis points. At 100 basis points, the percentage is equal to 1 percent, or 1.00.

But new evidence suggests the decimal point may be 150 years older than previously thought: A 15th-century Venetian merchant named Giovanni Bianchini appears to have used the mathematical symbol ...

Decimal points are at least 150 years older than historians thought, according to newly unearthed notes from Venetian merchant Giovanni Bianchini, who practiced astrology in the 1440s.