In 2003 Banco Atlántico became part of the Banco Sabadell Group.

History

*1901: Shortly after

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 ...

achieved its independence from Spain, José and Francisco Nonell y Feliu, who had been running a Cambio in Cuba since 1885, moved their business to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. There they joined with local merchants to found a bank, ''Nonell, Rovira y Matas'', to facilitate the investment in local securities of money that Catalans were repatriating from Cuba. *1917: The bank changed its name to ''Nonell Hermanos''. *1920s: The bank's name became ''Banca Nonell''. *1946: Claudio Güell y Churruca, Count of Ruiseñada, took over the bank and renamed it Banco Atlántico. *1961: Güell's descendants sold their shares to a new group of investors. *At some point Continental Illinois Bank owned part of Banco Atlántico, but eventually Rumasa, a holding company owned by

José María Ruiz Mateos José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

, came to own the bank. *1975: Banco Atlántico established an agency in New York that it closed in 2001. *1983: The Spanish Socialist government of

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician, who was the Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, and the 3rd Prime Minister of Spain since the ...

and

Miguel Boyer Miguel Boyer (5 February 1939 – 29 September 2014) was a Spanish economist and politician, who served as minister of economy, treasury and commerce from 1982 to 1985. Early life and education Boyer was born in St. Jean de Luz, France, on 5 F ...

nationalized

Rumasa José María Ruiz-Mateos Sociedad Anónima (Rumasa) was a holding company founded by Spanish entrepreneur José María Ruiz Mateos and expropriated by the Spanish government on February 23, 1983. In 1982 Rumasa constituted 2% of the Spanish

, including Atlántico. Rumasa, which owned 20 banks and some 300 other companies, had failed and was too large for the Corporación Bancaria to deal with. By this time, Banco Atlántico was the 10th largest bank in Spain, with 172 branches at home. It also had the agency in New York and a branch in Grand Cayman, two subsidiaries in Switzerland and Panama, and representative offices in eight countries. *1984: Arab Banking Corporation (ABC; 70%), with

BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (), better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Bilbao, Spain. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, and is present ...

and Allianz, acquired Atlántico from the government. Thereafter, Atlántico added private banking subsidiaries in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, and

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, while disposing of the one in Switzerland. Then Banco Exterior replaced BBVA and Allianz as shareholders. *1999: BBVA returned to partial ownership of Atlántico after it acquired Argentaria, which the Spanish government had created to combine several banks, including Banco Exterior. *2003: Banco Sabadell, beating out bids from several banks including

Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

and Caixa Geral de Depositos of Portugal, acquired and absorbed Banco Atlántico.

References

Companies based in Barcelona Banco Sabadell Banks established in 1901 Defunct banks of Spain Banks disestablished in 2003 {{Spain-bank-stub