Working under a system of free competition, and handling a considerable capital, they have been induced to offer greater and greater facilities to trade, in order to increase the number of their clients and the volume of their operations. Moreover, the suppression of the gold premium has removed one of their chief sources of profit; so that they have been forced to obtain, through the extension and perfection of their ordinary banking operations, the compensatory increase of business which allows them to maintain the volume of their profits and their dividends.
One cannot subject these banks to a rigid comparison; each of them conducts its business for the benefit of clients of its own nationality, and in consequence must accede to
their usages. The English banks, for example, have as their clients railway companies, a large number of export houses, and steamship lines, on account of the ties which connect them with the London market and its principal financial groups. The German Bank principally serves German industrial houses, and also German exporters. The French Bank of the Rio de la Plata, owing to its relations with the Paris market, and its strong position in Buenos Ayres, is of inestimable service to French commerce in the Argentine. The Italian banks share the custom of the Italian colony, which, on account of its numerical importance, gives rise to a great deal of small business.
The Banco Español del Rio de la Plata, which has branch establishments in Paris, London, Genoa, and Madrid, is in direct relation with the financial circles of those cities, and facilitates all banking operations between the various Spanish-speaking countries. Founded by the financiers of Buenos Ayres, and afterwards enlarged by French capital, the Spanish bank, which has admirable premises, has succeeded in surrounding itself with a clientèle of great landed proprietors, by offering them all kinds of facilities for the conduct of business operations connected with the sale of national produce. Their branch establishment in Paris is the favourite bank of the numerous Argentines who go yearly to Europe on business or for pleasure.
In this congeries of banks the Argentine is represented by two great establishments: one of these, the Banco de la Nacion Argentina, is a State institution which, in addition to the business transacted with the Government, runs cash and deposit departments like other banks; the other is the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Ayres, whose origin was in the reconstruction of the historic bank of the same name, the collapse of which was provoked by the terrible financial crisis of 1890. The excellent results of the last three years which we shall presently consider in detail, allow us to predict a brilliant future for this institution.
We shall give, in the following table, a list of these banks, in the order of their establishment, with details as to their capital, reserves, transactions, and dividends.
As lately as the year 1907, it was extremely difficult to
obtain exact information as to the operations of financial establishments, as there was no law obliging them to publish periodical statements of their position. From this state of affairs resulted this curious fact: that if one wished to ascertain the situation or study the operations of the English banks, for example—establishments which effected their business transactions by the aid of funds deposited by inhabitants of the Argentine—one was forced to resort to the records of the London Stock Exchange, in order to examine the reports and balance-sheets presented each year by the administrative Boards to the shareholders residing in England. But, very fortunately, thanks to a decision of the ex-Minister of Finance, Dr Eleodoro Lobos, this omission has been remedied, and it has been decreed that all financial establishments must in future supply the Ministry of Finance, during the first days of each month, with an explanatory balance-sheet giving details of their transactions. This information is made public, so that not only the Government, but anyone devoting himself to the study of commercial or financial affairs, may obtain an exact knowledge of the situation of the leading banks, and thence of the market, or indeed of the country in general.
All these banks work with a relatively large capital, which is mostly deposited. To understand the situation we must remember that banks are obliged, in the Argentine, to keep going by their own means, and are not allowed the resource of mobilising their turnover by rediscounting at the Bank of the Nation. The latter, indeed, is rather a competitor than a prop; since it also seeks the custom of private clients. Thus the funds at the disposal of the banks consists of their own capital and their deposit accounts—these latter varying greatly from one period to another—and they cannot benefit by the supplementary force arising from a credit at the National Bank.
| BANK | Founded | Capital | Reserve | Last | |
| in | Subscribed | Deposited | Funds | Dividend | |
| London and River Plate Bank | 1862 | £2,000,000 | £1,200,000 | £1,200,000 | 20% |
| London and Brazilian Bank | 1862 | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 15% |
| British Bank of South America | 1863 | 1,300,000 | 650,000 | 600,000 | 13% |
| Italia y Rio de la Plata | 1872 | 1,200,000 | 1,200,000 | 242,600 | 10% |
| Español del Rio de la Plata | 1886 | 4,400,000 | 3,346,671 | 738,848 | 12% |
| Francès del Rio de la Plata | 1886 | 2,400,000 | 2,350,340 | 140,562 | 9% |
| Nuevo Banco Italiano | 1887 | 264,000 | 264,000 | 103,400 | 15% |
| Popular Argentino | 1887 | 429,836 | 427,251 | 197,296 | 11% |
| Anglo-South-American Bank | 1888 | 2,500,000 | 1,250,000 | 750,000 | 9% |
| Banco de la Nacion Argentina | 1891 | 9,697,600 | 9,697,600 | 5,332,319 | — |
| Banco Aleman Transatlantico | 1893 | 1,000,000 | 880,000 | 159,232 | 9% |
| Banco Popular Italiano | 1899 | 110,170 | 79,752 | 3,696 | — |
| Banco del Rio de la Plata | 1902 | 88,000 | 87,340 | 6,864 | 10% |
| Banco de Credito Argentino | 1904 | 247,280 | 148,783 | — | — |
| Banco de la Provincia de Buenos-Ayres | 1906 | 1,760,000 | 1,760,000 | 89,320 | 10% |
| Banco de Galicia Buenos-Ayres | 1905 | 264,000 | 264,000 | 2,438 | 4% |
| Ernesto Tornquist & Co. Ltd. | 1874 | 1,500,000 | 1,500,000 | 230,263 | 10% |