Description

The bank opened in 1869. It provided credit to traders and rail carriers, granted loans against securities, and participated in selling bonds of Russian rail carriers in Russia and abroad in the 1870-80s. Financing industry during the economic growth of the 1890s, it became a junior partner of larger banks during the prewar economic growth, cooperating especially closely with the St. Petersburg International Bank by taking part in the latter’s financing efforts of rail carriers and industrial enterprises such as metallurgical works, coal producers, oil companies, and tobacco manufacturers. A number of enterprises independently sponsored by the bank organised the military industrial group under its aegis to build submarines for the Baltic Navy. The group included Lessner’s Plant and Nobel’s Plant in St. Petersburg, which played a leading role in the group, as well as Fenix, Atlas, and Gatchinsky Ironworks. The bank was located at 30 Nevsky Prospect in the building constructed in 1830s by architect P. P. Jacot and reconstructed in 1895-96 by architect L. N. Benois. (Source: Saint Petersburg Encyclopedia website)