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The Banque de la Guyane was a bank of issue in the territory of French Guiana. It was established in 1855, lost its monetary role in 1944, and was rebranded as BNP Paribas in the 2000s.

Overview

The French law of 30 April 1849 that marked the end of slavery in France established (Article 7) "the compensation granted to the colonists following the liberation of slave labor" and stipulated that "One eighth of the portion relating to the colonists of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion will be taken to serve for the establishment of a loan and discount bank in each of these colonies." Two years later, the law of 1 July 1851 mandated that "Each of the banks to which this law relates is authorized, to the exclusion of all other establishments, to issue in each of the colonies where it is established, bearer notes of five hundred, one hundred and twenty-five francs. These notes are repayable on sight, at the headquarters of the bank that issued them. They will be received as legal tender throughout each colony, by the public coffers, as well as by individuals." Like peers such as the Banque de l'Algérie and Banque du Sénégal, the Banque de la Martinique was both a commercial bank and a bank of issue. It opened in 1855, with head office in Cayenne. Its first chief executive (French: directeur) was Jean-Baptiste Bellamy, who in 1857 moved on to head the Banque de la Martinique.

In the 1890s, the bank erected a new head office building in central Cayenne, which was remodeled in 1975. In 1920, the bank opened a branch in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.

The bank lost its issuance privilege in the turmoil of World War II, when the Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer (CCFOM) was designated as monetary authority for the island and other French Caribbean territories on 1 July 1944. In practice, the Banque de la Guyane kept issuing the French Guianan franc until 1952 by delegation of the CCFOM. It remained in activity as a commercial bank, the only one in French Guiana until the Banque Française Commerciale opened there in 1975. In 1964, it came under the control of the Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BNCI), which became Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) in 1966 then BNP Paribas in 2000.

• Branch of the bank in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (right), 1920s postcard
• The same building in 2011

See also

• Banque de l'Indochine
• Banque de Madagascar

Refernces

1. Bernard Montabo (15 March 2021). "La banque de Guyane". France-Guyane.
2. ^ "La Banque de la Guyane, ancienne banque coloniale à Cayenne". Blog de Marie-Odile et Philippe. 20 December 2014.
3. Présentation de l'Institut d'Émission des Départements d'Outre-Mer (PDF), IEDOM, 2009
4. Marc Boyé (1979), Atlas des D.O.M. (PDF), CNRS-ORSTOM

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