From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banco Sabadell, S.A., (BMAD: SAB) is a major Catalan bank headquartered in Sabadell. Together with Banco de Asturias, Banco Urquijo, Sabadell Banca Privada, Banco Herrero, Solbank and ActivoBank, it is part of the Banco Sabadell Group, which is the fourth largest commercial banking group in Spain after Banco Santander, BBVA and Banco Popular Español. Sabadell has branches in London, Miami and Paris, and representative offices in Algiers, São Paulo, Beijing, Shanghai, Havana, New Delhi, Teheran, Milan, Singapore, Istanbul, Beyrouth, and Mexico City.
[edit] History
- 1881: A group of local businessmen from Sabadell (Barcelona) founded the bank to finance local industry and supply it with raw materials such as wool and coal.
- 1907: Banco Sabadell ended its non-banking operations in order to focus on commercial banking.
- 1926: After an employee discovers problems with the bank's balance sheet and accounts, rumors start to fly. A run on the bank begins that the bank fends off due to some heroic measures.
- 1975: Sabadell expanded beyond Catalonia by opening a branch in Madrid.
- 1988: Sabadell Group was formed.
- 1994: Banco del Bajío was established in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, and now is allied with Sabadell.
- 1995: Sabadell opened a representative office in Havana and a 50-50 joint venture - Financiera Iberoamericana - with Cuba’s Grupo Nueva Banca.
- 1996: Sabadell acquired National Westminster Bank’s operations in Spain and renamed many of the branches Solbank, which would then target British and other expatriates living in Spain. Sabadell acquired Banco de Asturias.
- 1999: The Andorran government authorized the establishment of BancSabadell Andorra. It began operating in 2000.
- 2000: Sabadell established an alliance with Banco Comercial Português (BCP). BCP acquired 8.5% of Sabadell. Sabadell also entered into another alliance with La Caixa. La Caixa exchanged its shares in Banco Herrero for a 15% stake in Sabadell, making La Caixa Sabadell’s largest shareholder and giving Sabadell 99% of Herrero. (Banco Herrero, founded in 1911 in Oviedo, had acquired Banca Masaveu in 1984 from the failed Rumasa group, which had acquired Masaveu in 1982. Masaveu, also based in Oviedo, was about 140 years old at the time.)
- 2003: Sabadell merged Banco Asturias into Banco Herrero. Sabadell acquired Banco Atlántico from Arab Banking Corporation.
- 2004: The Banco Sabadell Group adopted SabadellAtlántico as the new brand name of the commercial bank for the whole of Spain.
2006: Sabadell acquired Banco Urquijo S.A., Madrid, with 60 branches nationwide and around 10% market share in Spanish domestic private banking.
[edit] International Expansion
- 1891: Sabadell opens a branch in Buenos Aires. The branch is unsuccessful and the bank closes it in 1894.
- 1978: Sabadell opened its first 20th Century foreign office in London.
- 1986: Sabadell upgrades its LOndon Representative office to a branch.
- 1987: Sabadell opens three branches in France in Paris, Rungis (closed in 1996), and Perpignan (closed in 2001).
- 1988: Sabadell opens representative offices in New York (closed in 1994), and Milan.
- 1989: Sabadell opens a representative office in Geneva (closed in 2001), and a finance company.
- 1990: Sabadell opens a branch in Toulouse (closed in 1997), and a representative office in Mexico City.
- 1991: Sabadell opens representative offices in Beijing and Singapore.
- 1993: Sabadell established an agency in Miami.)
- 1994: Sabadell established branches in Lisbon and Oporto. Banco del Bajío was established in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, and now is allied with Sabadell.
- 1995: Sabadell opened a representative office in Havana and a 50-50 joint venture - Financiera Iberoamericana - with Cuba’s Grupo Nueva Banca.
- 1998: Sabadell established a branch in the Cayman Island (closed in 2003), and representative offices in Buenos Aires (closed in 2002), and Caracas.
- 1999: Sabadell opened representative offices in Munich (which it moved to Frankfurt in 2002), and Teheran.
- 2000: Sabadell transferred its branches in Portugal to Banco Comercial Português, with which it had established an alliance. It also opened a representative office in Guatemala City (closed in 2005).
- 2002: Sabadell opened its representative office in Frankfurt, which had moved from Munich, but which it closedin 2004.
- 2003: Sabadell also sold its Geneva subsidiary, BanSabadell Finance, to EFG Private Bank, part of the EFG Banking Group, the 5th largest in Switzerland in terms of capitalization. Sabadell upgraded its Miami agency to a branch, and made it the HQ for the Americas.
- 2004: The acquisition of Banco Atlantico brought Sabadell a branch in Lison (closed in 2005), and representative offices in Beirut, Bogotá (closed in 2005), Quito (closed in 2006), Santiago, and São Paulo. Sabadell also opened representative offices in Algiers and New Delhi.
- 2005: Sabadell opened a representative office in Shanghai.
- 2006: Sabadell sold the Panamanian subsidiary that it had acquired when it acquired Banco Atlántico - Banco Atlántico Panama - to Panama's Banco Continental. Sabadell also opened a representative office in Istanbul.
- 2007: Sabadell bought TransAtlantic Bank, a South Florida Bank that started in 1984.
[edit] Source
Farrés y Bernaldo, Jesús. 1982. Banco de Sabadell: Cien años de historia. Sabadell.
[edit] External links
