(also known as Banco República or BROU) is a state-owned commercial bank in Uruguay, founded in 1896 under the presidency of Juan Idiarte Borda.[1]
The most important Uruguayan bank with the largest number of customers,[2] it plays a dominant role in lending and deposit in the Uruguayan market. It currently has 124 branches throughout the national territory and 2 abroad.[3]
History
In the last decades of the 19th century, different social groups such as small merchants and public employees, who, in the framework of the Baring Crisis, demanded access to bank credit, so as not to resort to usury private banks and various lenders.[4] In the Agricultural Livestock Congress of 1895, the creation of a financial institution had been called for to provide agricultural credit, and to adapt the terms and conditions required for rural production.