The Banque de Salonique was a regional bank headquartered in Thessaloniki and Istanbul. Created in 1886 under the initial leadership of the Salonica Jewish Allatini family with Austrian, Hungarian and French banking partners, it contributed to the development of the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern Balkans during the late Ottoman Empire. In the Interwar period its activity was mainly focused on Northern Greece, where it operated until the German occupation, and Turkey, where it kept operating until 2001, albeit under different names after 1969. Its preserved headquarters buildings are landmarks, respectively, of Valaoritou Street, a significant thoroughfare of downtown Thessaloniki, and of Bankalar Caddesi in the Karaköy neighborhood of Istanbul.
The bank's former headquarters in Thessaloniki, now Stoa Malakopi
Former head office in Constantinople/Istanbul, on Bankalar Caddesi
Bankalar Caddesi in Istanbul with the bank's former headquarters at far right
The Länderbank, full original name k. k. privilegierte Österreichische Länderbank, was a major Austrian bank, created in 1880. In 1922 its head office was moved to Paris under the name Banque des Pays de l'Europe Centrale, even though its activity remained overwhelmingly in the Austrian operations. After the 1938 Anschluss the latter came under control of Dresdner Bank by the name Länderbank Wien. It was nationalized in 1946, renamed Österreichische Länderbank AG in 1948, and eventually merged in 1991 with Vienna's Zentralsparkasse to form Bank Austria, which in turn has been a subsidiary of UniCredit since 2005.
The building in Vienna designed by Otto Wagner for Länderbank, its head office from 1884 to 1938
Ludwik Wodzicki (1834-1894), founding chairman (German: Gouverneur) of the Länderbank
1913 advert for the Länderbank-sponsored Galician People's Bank for Agriculture and Trade
War poster, 1916