The Banque d'Anvers () was a Belgian based

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, 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 m ...

that acted as the affiliate of the

Société Générale de Belgique The ' (, ; often referred to in Belgium simply as "Société Générale" or SGB) was an investment bank and, subsequently, an industrial and financial conglomerate in Belgium between 1822 and 2003. It has been described as the world's first u ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. It started activity as a branch in 1823, became a fully-fledged bank in 1827, and was eventually merged into the Générale de Banque in 1965. In the 1920s, it was described as one of the most powerful banks in Belgium.

Name

Even though the bank was primarily active in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, for most of its existence it was generally referred to by its French name including in Dutch-speaking or English-speaking contexts.

History

Antwerpen Meir 48 - 261285 - onroerenderfgoed

One year after its establishment in 1822, the

(at that time known as the ) opened a branch in Antwerp. A few years later, it decided to convert it into a legally separate bank (subsidiary), which became effective on . At the time, the was a note-issuing bank, and issued special banknotes that could only be redeemed at the Banque d'Anvers. During its first decades of activity, the bank had no capital of its own, until it was reorganized and capitalized in 1870, when the Société Générale de Belgique took up half of the shareholders' equity. In 1919, the Banque d'Anvers absorbed the (est. 1910) and the (est. 1900 as the , changed name in July 1914), which it fully merged into itself in 1924. In 1934-1935, the Société Générale de Belgique consolidated all its other local affiliates into the newly formed Générale de Banque, but the family shareholders of the Banque d'Anvers rejected that option and the bank thus remained as the SGB's only autonomous local affiliate bank in Belgium. The Banque d'Anvers only had to divest its relatively small portfolio of industrial participations, for which it formed a separate holding entity, the , whose equity it distributed to its own shareholders. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Banque d'Anvers absorbed other local banks, the in 1957, and the venerable Banque J. J. Le Grelle (est. 1792) in 1962. Even so, the Banque d'Anvers lacked critical mass in the context of 1960s Belgium. On , it was merged into the Générale de Banque, simultaneously as the Société Belge de Banque. As a consequence, it returned to the status it had in its origin years as a mere local branch of the . In subsequent years, its head office building on Antwerp's

Meir Meir () is a Jewish male given name and an occasional surname. It means "one who shines". It is often Germanized as Maier, Mayer, Mayr, Meier, Meyer, Meijer, Italianized as Miagro, or Anglicized as Mayer, Meyer, or Myer. Alfred J. Kolatch, ''T ...

thoroughfare featured a sign that read "Generale Bankmaatschappij v/h Bank van Antwerpen", .

Leadership

* , chairman 1827-1866? * Charles Gréban de Saint-Germain, chairman 1870-? * , chairman ca. 1890 * Philippe Dulait, chairmen 1964?-1965 Hector Carlier, founder of

Petrofina Petrofina was a Belgium, Belgian oil company. It merged with Total S.A., Total in 1999 to form TotalFina, which after subsequent mergers has changed its name back to Total. In the United States, Fina's former refining and marketing operations ...

, started his career at the Banque d'Anvers, in which his father held a significant equity stake.

References

Defunct banks of Belgium {{bank-stub

Name

History

Leadership

See also

References