Bank of Naples

(Banco di Napoli), a large Italian commercial bank. One of the world’s oldest banks, it was founded in 1539. It is one of a group of national banks that are permitted to carry out currency transactions and short-term crediting of foreign trade, along with credit to industry, agriculture, and internal trade. Until 1926 it was one of the banks issuing bank notes. In 1936 it absorbed the Agricultural Commercial Bank of Southern Italy.

The Bank of Naples is one of the so-called public legal banks, the capital of which belongs almost wholly to the government and which are charged with stimulating the economic growth of the country. The charters of these banks are confirmed by the government; their presidents and general directors and also several other responsible officials are named by the Ministry of Finance. These banks have special departments for medium- and long-term crediting of various branches of the economy. The Bank of Naples has four such branches: agrarian credit, land credit, mortgage credit, and industrial credit. By 1968 the Bank of Naples had 480 branches in Italy; affiliates in the USA, Argentina, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Libya; and representatives in England, the USA, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the German Federal Republic, and Argentina. The bank’s joint-stock and reserve capital at the end of 1968 was 90 billion lira; deposits, about 2,152 billion lira.