The Jewish-owned Commercial Bank of Buenos Aires which closed two weeks ago in a financial scandal that rocked the Jewish community, has reopened under new management. Julio Geller, the bank’s new director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the bank now enjoys the confidence of the Argentine government’s Central Bank and expressed the hope that it will continue to receive the support of all Jewish bodies in Argentina and abroad.
It was taken over by the Liebermann and Geller families, prominent Argentine Jews, with the permission of the Central Bank. The former management left a record of financial mismanagement and a loss of some $4 million which led to the bank’s collapse. The Commercial Bank of Buenos Aires was started 60 years ago as a mutual aid cooperative serving Jewish peddlers and small shopowners. It rose to the status of a bank many years later but still represented mainly Jewish investors. Julio Geller is a German-born Jew, the commercial representative here of the Parker Pen Co. for many years.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.