Banco Popular Español

Banco Popular Español, S.A.

Type	Public
Founded	1926
Headquarters	Madrid, Spain
Key people	Ángel Ron (Chairman of the board), Francisco Fernández Dopico (CEO)
Industry	Financial Services
Products	Banking and insurance
Revenue	€2.764 billion (2005)
Employees	13,800 (2005)
Website	http://www.bancopopular.es/

Banco Popular Español, S.A., (IBEX-35:POP) is the third largest banking group in Spain. The group consists of the following companies:

A national bank: Banco Popular Español
Five regional banks: Banco de Andalucía, Banco de Castilla, Banco de Crédito Balear, Banco de Vasconia, Banco de Galicia
A mortgage bank: Banco Popular Hipotecario
A subsidiary in France: Banco Popular France
A subsidiary in Portugal: Banco Popular Portugal
A separate Internet bank: bancopopular-e.com
Representative offices abroad: Belgium, Chile, Germany, Hong-Kong, Caracas, Morocco, Netherlands, Switzerland (Geneva and Zürich), London.

[edit] History

1926: Founding of Banco Popular Español (BPE)
1968: BPE opens a representative office in Paris that became a subsidiary that by 1991 had a network of 14 branches in France.
1992: BPE converts its subsidiary in France into a joint venture with Banco Comercial Portugués under the name Banco Popular Comercial.
2000: BPE establishes a network of branches in Portugal.
2002: BPE and Banco Comercial Portugués part ways; Banco Popular Comercial becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Popular and changes its name to Banco Popular France. In Portugal, Banco Popular buys Banco Nacional de Crédito (BNC) and transfers its existing branches there to BNC. Later, in 2005, BNC would change its name to Banco Popular Portugal.