This article discusses banking in Cuba and gives an overview of the recent past. For details on the Cuban economy in general, see ''

economy of Cuba The economy of Cuba is a mixed command economy dominated by state-run enterprises. Most of the labor force is employed by the state. In the 1990s, the ruling Communist Party of Cuba encouraged the formation of worker co-operatives and self-empl ...

''.

History

Following the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

of the 1950s, the

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

sector came under the control of the new regime. The new authorities famously appointed

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...

as President of the National Bank of Cuba ( es, Banco Nacional de Cuba) in 1959. Guevara often retold the

apocryphal Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

story of how he gained the job at the bank;

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

had asked if there were an ''

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

a'' in the room and he had put his hand up – much to Castro's surprise. Guevara had mistakenly thought that Castro had asked for a '' comunista''. Guevara's appointment seemed somewhat ironic, as he often condemned

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

, favored its abolition, and showed his disdain by signing Cuban banknotes with his nickname, "Che." The 1990s saw the restructuring of the Cuban banking system, with new commercial banks created, and a new central bank, "Banco Central de Cuba" set up. The architect of this restructuring,

Francisco Soberón Francisco Ricardo Soberón Garrido is a human rights leftist activist in Peru. In 1983 he founded APRODEH, the non-governmental organization of which he is currently a director. He previously led the National Human Rights Coordinator's Office an ...

, became the first president of the new central bank.

Central Bank of Cuba

The

Central Bank of Cuba The Central Bank of Cuba ( es, Banco Central de Cuba, BCC) is the central bank of Cuba. It was created in 1997 to take over many of the functions of the National Bank of Cuba ( es, Banco Nacional de Cuba, links=no), which was established on 23 De ...

( es, Banco Central de Cuba - "BCC") functions as the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...

of Cuba. The Cuban government set it up in 1997 to take over many of the functions of the ''National Bank of Cuba'' ( es, Banco Nacional de Cuba, italic=yes - BNC).

Francisco Soberón Valdés Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

served as the Bank's President from its creation until he stepped down in 2009. He was replaced by Ernesto Medina, who had served as president of the state-run Banco Financiero Internacional since 2003 The President of the Central Bank serves ''ex officio'' as a member of the

Council of Ministers of Cuba The Council of Ministers (Spanish: ''Consejo de ministros''), also referred to as simply the Cabinet of Cuba, is the highest ranking executive and administrative body of the Republic of Cuba, and constitutes the nation's government. It consists of ...

. As with most Cuban government ministries, the Central Bank acts as both banking regulator and

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

of much of the Cuban banking system.

Current system

Cuba has eight commercial banks, categorisable as follows:

Retail banks

* ''Banco de Crédito y Comercio'' (BANDEC) * ''Banco Popular de Ahorro'' (BPA) * ''Banco Financiero Internacional'' (BFI) * ''Banco Internacional de Comercio S.A. ''(BICSA) * ''Banco Metropolitano S.A. ''

Investment bank

* ''Banco de Inversiones S.A.''

Other

* ''Banco Nacional de Cuba'' (BNC) * ''Banco Exterior de Cuba'' (BEC) In addition, the ''Havana International Bank'' is registered in London.

Non-banking financial institutions

The Central Bank also regulates a number of other financial institutions, most notably: * ''Grupo Nueva Banca, S.A.'' (New Bank Group) - the principal shareholder of the following entities: Banco Internacional de Comercio, S.A., Financiera Nacional, S.A., Compañía Fiduciaria, S.A., InCreFin, S.A. It also holds 50.0% in the

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

Financiera Iberoamericana, S.A. and held 40% percent in Caribbean Finance Investments Ltd. (CariFin) (the latter was subsequently dissolved). Central Bank website - retrieved 13 December 2006 * ''Casas de Cambio, S.A.'' (CADECA), formed in 1994, this company operates money-exchange kiosks

References

External links

*
Central Bank of Cuba website
{{North America topic, Banking in

Economy of Cuba