Bank of Savoy
_H%C3%B4tel_de_Sales_043.jpg)
The Bank of Savoy (French: Banque de Savoie, also referred to under that name in Italian) was a bank of issue of the Kingdom of Sardinia, established in 1851 and based in Annecy and Chambéry. As a consequence of France's annexation of the former Duchy of Savoy under the Treaty of Turin (1860), the Bank of Savoy was eventually absorbed by the Bank of France in 1865.
Overview[edit]
The Bank of Savoy was established by Sardinian Royal Law of 26 April 1851, as State Bank of the Duchy of Savoy, one of the constituent states of the Kingdom of Sardinia, with a privilege to mint coins and issue paper money with legal tender status in Savoy.[1] Its head office was located in the Hôtel de Sales, a historic building in Annecy built in the late 1680s, complemented with a branch office in Chambéry. It succeeded a previous venture, the Bank of Annecy, created by royal edict of 18 April 1840.[2] Scipion Ruphy was the first chairman of its board of directors.[3]: 524
It had an initial capital of 800,000 liras, raised to 1.6 million liras in 1853, 2 million in 1856, and eventually 4 million in 1860.[4]
Following the annexation of Savoy to France in 1860, the monetary role of the Bank of Savoy became a matter of controversy known as "l'affaire de la Banque de Savoie". The bank's issuance privilege was initially maintained by the convention of 23 August 1860 between France and Sardinia. This commitment, however, was due to generate frictions with the Bank of France which had received a formal monopoly on French money issuance in 1848. Finance Minister Pierre Magne appointed a commission to resolve the matter, chaired by jurist Adolphe Vuitry, which recommended that the Bank of France buy out the Bank of Savoy's issuance privilege for 1.2 million francs. Ruphy rejected this price as unacceptably low, signaled in late 1861 that the Bank of Savoy would compete with the Bank of France over all French territory. In September 1863, the Bank of Savoy made an agreement with the Pereire brothers according to which the latter would subscribe to a capital increase that would grant them equity control. Shortly afterwards, the bank's general assembly resolved on 4 October 1863 to implement the earlier project of nationwide competition with the Bank of France, which the Pereires argued would stimulate the French economy through improved credit allocation. Ruphy used this situation to negotiate a higher price of 4 million francs for the Bank of France's issuance privilege buy-out, triggering a court fight until Émile Pereire eventually gave up given the government's evident lack of support of his stance.[3] The Bank of France subsequently took over the Bank of Savoy's issuance privilege, awarded by imperial order of 8 April 1865.[citation needed]
Namesakes[edit]
An unrelated family-owned bank was created with the same name in 1912, absorbed by the Crédit Commercial de France in 1993, and eventually acquired by Groupe Banque Populaire in 2008. As of 2024, it kept operating under the Banque de Savoie brand.[5]
A different bank named Savoy Bank was created in New York in 2008, and eventually acquired by Hanover Bancorp in 2021.[6]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Louis Comby (1977), Histoire des Savoyards, Nathan, p. 108
- ^ Thierry Couzin (2008), "Un projet d'industrialisation : La centralisation bancaire dans le royaume de Sardaigne de Charles-Albert à Victor-Emmanuel II (1843-1849)" (PDF), Mediterranea: 593
- ^ a b Claude-Joseph Gignoux (1 August 1960), "En marge d'un centenaire : L'affaire de la Banque de Savoie", Revue des Deux Mondes: 524–531
- ^ Jean Bouvier (1960), "Les Péreire et l'affaire de la Banque de Savoie", Cahiers d'histoire (V:4): 137
- ^ "Notre banque en synthèse". Banque de Savoie.
- ^ "Hanover Bancorp Announces Completion of Acquisition of Savoy Bank". Yahoo!Finance. 21 May 2021.
  | This bank and insurance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |