New York - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Branch

city New York
address 165 Broadway
Since 1921: 62-64 William Street
RESOLUTION OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS 08.07.1918
OPENING 06.1918
CLOSING 12.1941
description

Pursuing its innate international vocation, in 1918 Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) opened a branch in New York - its first in the United States. The branch was intended to carry out a range of functions: most importantly, commercial credit, through the documentary draft system on exported goods, and the granting of loans to Italian companies importing to the United States. So BCI obtained the lines of credit acceptance that were being made available by a number of U.S. banks at the time. BCI's subsidiary was also active in collecting the deposits of Italian emigrants and the foreign exchange trade, and served as a sort of U.S. dollar treasury to meet the needs of the greater BCI Group, which had in the meantime - under the leadership of Joseph Toeplitz - set up offices in various Central and Eastern European countries, becoming the largest European bank in terms of the size of its international network by the late 1920s.
BCI's direct presence in the United States enabled it to gather first-hand data on North American markets and products, new technologies, the standardization and "scientific" organization of operations, and marketing philosophies and methods. Indeed, Italy's economists were very interested in the topics of the organization of the banking system, the stock exchange and economic and monetary policy in the United States; one of them, Raffaele Mattioli, would join BCI in 1925, tasked with handling negotiations on American loans to Italy.
Under the supervision of the BCI's central director, Giorgio Di Veroli, the branch was re-organized in 1935 by its new director, Guglielmo Reiss Romoli, but on 11 December 1941, following the declaration of war between the United States and Italy, the assets of the New York branch - like those of other Italian bank branches - were immediately seized and the branch was liquidated. Its director was imprisoned in the Ellis Island internment camp until returning to Italy in 1942.
Despite the fact that its branch had been shut down, BCI charged Di Veroli - who had fled from Italy to escape its discriminatory Racial Laws - with safeguarding the bank's interests in the area and cultivating useful contacts to make use of once the war had come to an end. In 1945 a representative office was opened in New York, tasked with rekindling BCI's relationships with America's financial and business world.
BCI would reopen its branch only in 1969, though the transformation of its representative office.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ASI-BCI, VCA; July 8, 1918; vol. 4, p. 287
ASI-BCI, VCA; October 19, 1918; vol. 5, pp. 22-35
ASI-BCI, VCA; December 6, 1945; vol. 22, pp. 83-84
ASI-BCI, Foreign Network, New York Branch
ASI-BCI, Foreign Accounting Division, Liquidation of BCI's New York branch, Folders 7-8
ASI-BCI, Papers of Di Veroli
ASI-BCI, Paperts of Reiss Romoli

other banks in the same country Los Angeles - First Los Angeles Bank Los Angeles - Istituto Bancario San Paolo, later Sanpaolo IMI and subsequently Intesa Sanpaolo - Representative Office Chicago - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Branch Chicago - CARIPLO - Representative Office New York - Banco di Napoli - Inspectorate office, later Agency New York - Banco di Napoli - Representative Office New York - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Representative Office New York - Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze - Representative Office New York - CARIPLO - Branch San Francisco - CARIPLO - Representative Office Boston - Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Company Chicago - Banco di Napoli Trust Company of Chicago Chicago - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Representative Office Los Angeles - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Representative Office Los Angeles - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Branch Los Angeles - Istituto Bancario San Paolo - Branch Los Angeles - Banco di Napoli - Branch New York - Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Company New York - Banco di Napoli Trust Company of New York New York - Banco di Napoli - Branch New York - Banca Commerciale Italiana, later Banca Intesa - Branch New York - Banco Ambrosiano, Banco Ambrosiano Veneto - Representative Office New York - CARIPLO - Representative Office New York - Istituto Bancario San Paolo - Branch New York - Long Island Trust Company (Litco), later North American Bancorporation (Nabac) Philadelphia - Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Company Washington - Istituto Mobiliare Italiano - Representative Office Washington - Banca Commerciale Italiana - Representative Office Chicago - Banco di Napoli - Agency
see in the map