Banco de Portugal
| Headquarters | Lisbon |
| founding | 1846 |
| president | Carlos Costa |
| country | Portugal |
| currency | |
| ISO 4217 | EUR |
| Currency reserves | EUR 23.84 billion (2016) |
| Website | |
| successor | |
| List of central banks | |
The Banco de Portugal ( Portuguese 'Bank of Portugal') is the central bank of Portugal based in Lisbon . It was founded by royal decree on November 19, 1846. As a central bank, it was responsible for issuing banknotes of the Portuguese real and later the Portuguese escudo . Today it is part of the European System of Central Banks .
history
In 1822 the Bank of Lisbon was founded as a central bank. However, an extensive banknote issue to finance the state budget undermined the confidence of investors. In 1846 the bank was on the verge of collapse. To save them, the Bank of Lisbon was merged with the (also illiquid ) Companhia Confiança Nacional . The resulting Banco de Portugal received a banknote monopoly for Portugal. The issued banknotes were declared legal tender . This measure was successful and the bank was able to redeem a large part of the banknotes from the predecessor institutions.
In the 1850s, the state's financial needs rose sharply again. To cover this, the government limited the banknote privilege to Lisbon and granted a number of other banks the right to issue banknotes. The resulting central banks in the capital were the Banco Minho , the Banco de Braga and the Banco Ultramarin . The central banks Banco Mercantile , Banco Union , Banco Alliance and Banco Public Utility were founded in Porto .
Despite these competitors, the Banco de Portugal prevailed in the market. In 1887 it was again granted the exclusive right to issue banknotes. The banknotes of other central banks were withdrawn within the next 15 years. The exception was the Banco Nacional Ultramarino , which issued banknotes for the Portuguese colonies.
In 1890/91 the bank got into trouble during a financial crisis. In order to save the bank, the government legally stipulated a compulsory rate for the outstanding notes. This compulsory rate also applied to the new currency after the introduction of the escudo.
In 1924, the Banco de Portugal fell victim to the largest banknote counterfeiting case in history. Alves dos Reis put counterfeit money into circulation in a volume that was as large as the official notes. As a result, the bank and Escudo came under massive pressure.
Until it was nationalized in September 1974, the Banco de Portugal was a private central bank whose shares were listed on the stock exchange. Since 1975 the Banco de Portugal has also been responsible for banking supervision .
Personalities
- Inocêncio Camacho Rodrigues , President of the Bank from 1911 to 1936
literature
- Albert Pick: Papiergeld , Verlag Klinkhardt & Biermann, Braunschweig 1967, pp. 311–314
See also
Web links
- Official website (Portuguese / English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Portugal Foreign Exchange Reserves. In: tradingeconomics.com. Retrieved January 28, 2017 (English).