Banco Pastor
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Banco Pastor is the second oldest bank in Spain (after Banco Etcheverría).
It was founded in 1776 by Jaime Dalmau Batista as Jaime Dalmau y Cía (Jaime Dalmau and Company), who had a shipping company operating between the port of A Coruña and several American ports. Galician emmigrants used to send their savings back to Galice through the shipping company, hence the need to manage all that capital.
In 1819 José Pastor Taxonera became a partner in the company, and soon would gain all control of the business. He bought it in 1845 and changed its name to José Pastor. The business would be passed down through generations of his descendants, changing its name to Pastor Hermanos, José Pastor y Cía. and Sobrinos de José Pastor successively until 1925, in which it was given its current name and became an S.A. (corporation). Pedro Barrié de la Maza takes full control of the bank in 1939 and makes it a big supporter of the Galician business network. At national level it acquired participations in Astano, Renfe and Fenosa, founded in 1943 by Barrié de la Maza.
In 1971, after Barrié de la Maza's death, his wife Carmela Arias y Díaz de Rábago is appointed executive president of the bank, being the first woman to do so in Spain. In September 2001 she was succeeded by José María Arias Mosquera[1].
The bank's main business activity is commercial banking, corporate banking, Internet and telephone banking, and treasury and capital markets. The bank had 4,035 employees as of 2005, 555 branches in Spain and 3 abroad.