Bank of the City of Buenos Aires

Municipal Savings and Loans Bank

The board of directors first meeting after its establishment, on July 10, outlined the goal of "serving the working community, which is in the greatest need of such an institution."

The bank opened its doors in a Monserrat Ward residence that formerly belong to Viceroy Joaquin del Pino, it grew quickly and changed its name six times until it reached its current denomination. The first substantial change occurred in 1888 when, after the federalization of Buenos Aires, the bank was nationalized and transferred to the jurisdiction of the City of Buenos Aires. On September 30, 1904, through law 4351, the institution was called "Municipal Savings and Loans Bank".

Its new headquarters in the financial district were accompanied by new market capitalization, and it allowed it to provide personal, business and mortgage loans and payday advances. It soon began to administer pension funds and became a leading local source of underwriting of initial public offering activity on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, provincial and national government bonds, and foreign trade, as well. But the main change was that the bank was allowed to collect the public's deposits in Savings Accounts.

At first, it followed disappointing results, which increased investment in bank branches, agencies and other forms of representation, and led to the institution's renewed growth, particularly during the tenure of bank president Enrique Peña, who in 1916 committed the institution to "combat usury in the most effective possible way – making branches readily available throughout the city so as to lessen inconvenience to those who need our services."

Municipal Bank of Buenos Aires

A nationalist coup in 1943 led to the sudden advent of Col. Juan Perón as the new regime's chief policy-maker. The new government quickly made the control of price gouging in banking and public services a policy centerpiece, and in 1944, the bank was again re-chartered as the Municipal Bank of Buenos Aires, to give depositors more commercial banking options in Argentina's growing public sector.

The mass movements that appeared in Argentina since the forties integrated socially and politically urban classes derived from European immigration and rural inland workers, both of which became industrialized. This impacted on the evolution of the bank: social loans under a pledge had started to become a limited tool in a modernizing and growing country that converted its inhabitants into citizens. Municipal Bank had to expand its role then, as the new professionals and salaried employees required loans to buy and set up their own homes, and salesman and small industrial entrepreneurs needed to expand and modernize their facilities to keep up with the expanding internal market.

The bank became a leader in small business lending, and financed public housing projects in underprivileged areas. The city purchased a downtown lot on the massive Nueve de Julio Avenue (where the Mercado del Plata wholesaler stood) in 1947 for the construction of municipal offices, and an important branch was opened therein after the building's 1961 completion.