Mercantil Banco is a financial institution with more than 90 years of banking activity in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
and is a subsidiary of Mercantil Servicios Financieros.
History
On 23 March 1925 a group of 98 Venezuelan businessmen founded the bank with the name of "Banco Neerlando Venezolano" in an economy determined by the agricultural activity being the major component of national income (coffee, cacao and cotton). The Bank began its operations on 3 April 1925.
In 1968, it became the official representative of
Diners Club
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a comb ...
in Venezuela. Since the 1970s the bank achieved the opening of subsidiaries in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
,
Curaçao
Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Panama,
Peru,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
,
United Kingdom and
United States.
In 1982, the ''
Mercantil Tower
The Mercantil Tower (also known as the ''Mercantil Building'') is a skyscraper located in the Venezuelan city of Caracas, is known for being the fourth tallest tower in the city and the country with 179 m in height and 40 floors, is located at ...
'' skyscraper was built as the new bank headquarter's. In 1994, it was not really affected by the
economic crisis in Venezuela. In 2000, Mercantil bought a lot of financial and insurance institutions as ''Interbank'', ''Venezolana Entidad de Ahorro y Préstamo'', ''Banco Monagas'', ''Seguros Orinoco'', among others. At the end of 2007, Mercantil controlled 12.29% of the banking
market share
Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...
in Venezuela, just behind
Banesco.
References
{{Authority control
Mercantil
Mercantil
Venezuelan brands
1925 establishments in Venezuela