Banco de la Nación Argentina (BNA; en, Bank of the Argentine Nation) is a national bank in Argentina, and the largest in the country's banking sector.

History

The Bank of the Argentine Nation was founded on 18 October 1891 by President

Carlos Pellegrini Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini Bevans (October 11, 1846 – July 17, 1906) was Vice President of Argentina and became President of Argentina from August 6, 1890 to October 12, 1892, upon Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation (see Rev ...

, with the purpose of stabilizing the nation's finances following the

Panic of 1890 Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

; its first director was Vicente Lorenzo Casares. In its early decades it became a leading financing source for agricultural smallholders, and later for commercial and industrial businesses, as well as handling an array of public sector transactions. The bank's reputation suffered after it was revealed that bribes had been received by the board of directors in 1994 when contacting IBM for the supply of computers, software, and communication equipment, becoming a prominent political scandal at the time.

Services

Long a significant supplier of domestic lending in a credit-tight economy, the bank attempted—with only partial success—to revive the local credit market during the tenure of Gabriela Ciganotto, who stated the main goal of the bank in her inauguration speech in 2006 as "putting

he bank He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

at the service of production, especially small and medium businesses, and not of speculation." the bank ranked 278th in the world in terms of

tier one capital Tier 1 capital is the core measure of a bank's financial strength from a regulator's point of view.By definition of Bank for International Settlements. It is composed of ''core capital'', which consists primarily of common stock and disclosed res ...

(

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.623 billion, or 11% of deposits in December 2006) according to a global survey of top 1000 world banks carried out by

The Banker ''The Banker'' is an English-language monthly international financial affairs publication owned by ''The Financial Times'' Ltd. and edited in London, United Kingdom. The magazine was first published in January 1926 through founding Editor, Brend ...

, a Financial Times publication. Domestically, it has long been Argentina's largest bank; it maintained 626 branches, US$30 billion in deposits (28% of the domestic total), and a loan portfolio of US$15 billion (20% of the domestic total). Its lending profile is less oriented toward consumer or mortgage lending than other leading banks in Argentina; one third of its outstanding credit is to the public sector and 80% of the remainder is allocated to commercial loans. The public bank is giving to the people divers credit such as UVA credit for house mortgage.

Headquarters

The bank's headquarters are located in the San Nicolás neighborhood of Buenos Aires on the site of the Teatro Colón's first building, bought by the national government in 1888 and later designated as main offices of the recently founded institution. The edifice was remodeled in 1910 by architect

Adolfo Büttner Adolfo may refer to: * Adolfo, São Paulo, a Brazilian municipality * Adolfo (designer), Cuban-born American fashion designer * Adolfo or Adolf Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name used in Ge ...

to better suit its new role as a bank venue. In 1938 architect

Alejandro Bustillo Alejandro Bustillo (18 March 1889 – 3 November 1982) was an Argentine painter and architect who left his mark in various tourist destinations in Argentina, especially in the Andean region of the Patagonia. Biography Born in Buenos Aires, son ...

presented a new design for a much larger building in a revivalist, French-influenced, Monumental Neoclassical style. These new headquarters were built in two stages between 1940 and 1955. This building is also home to the

Alejandro Bustillo Art Gallery Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander. Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander (Czech, Polish), Alexandre ( French), Alexandros (Greek), Alsander (Irish), Alessandro (Italian), Aleksandr (Rus ...

, established in 1971, as well as to a historic and

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

museum. Banco Nación (ca. 1880).jpg, Original building of the Teatro Colón c. 1880 Banco Nación (ca. 1921).jpg,

's remodel in 1910 Buenos Aires-2672f-Banco de la Nación Argentina.jpg, Current Neoclassical building by

Branches

the bank maintained 626 branches throughout Argentina, and 15 more overseas ( Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia; Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil;

Georgetown, Cayman Islands George Town is the capital and largest city in the Cayman Islands, located on Grand Cayman. , the city had a population of 34,921, making it the largest city (by population) of all the British Overseas Territories. George Town is the heart ...

;

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

; Paris; Tokyo; Panama City; Asunción, Paraguay; Madrid; London; New York City and Miami; Montevideo, Uruguay; and Caracas, Venezuela), along with a representative office in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It employed 16,519 people in Argentina, and more than 200 abroad. Bahía Blanca- banco nación.jpg,

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...

, Buenos Aires Banco Nación, Colón.jpg, Colón, Entre Ríos Junín_Banco_Nación_808.jpg, Junín, Buenos Aires Edificio Banco Nación Argentina.jpg, Balcarce, Buenos Aires Banco Nación Resistencia.jpg, Resistencia, Chaco Banco Nacion - Trelew.JPG,

Trelew Trelew (, from cy, tref "town" and the name of the founder, Lewis Jones) is a city in the eastern part of the Chubut Province of Argentina. Located in Patagonia, the city is the largest and most populous in the low valley of the Chubut River, wit ...

Chubut Chubut may refer to: * Chubut Province, Argentina * Chubut River in the Chubut Province * Chubut steamer duck The Chubut steamer duck or white-headed flightless steamer duck (''Tachyeres leucocephalus'') is a flightless duck endemic to Argenti ...

Banco_de_la_Nación_Argentina_en_San_Ramón_de_la_Nueva_Orán.JPG,

Orán Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Argentine province of the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the 7th most-populous city in Argentina. The city serves as the cultural and economic ce ...

Banco de la Nación Argentina.jpg,

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

, Buenos Aires

References

External links