Banco del Estado de Chile

Banco del Estado de Chile (In English: Bank of the State of Chile), commercially operating under the brand BancoEstado, is the only Public Bank in Chile and was created by government decree in 1953. It provides financial services to consumers and companies, with a focus on national coverage in terms of geography and social sectors and a particular emphasis on the unbanked and small and medium enterprises, although it serves all types of businesses. It is the country's largest mortgage lender and largest issuer of debit cards. In addition, BancoEstado performs all of the Chilean government's financial activities through a single account managed by the General Treasury of the Republic of Chile.

Contents

• Legal framework
• Subsidiaries
• Industry development
• References

The bank was created by Decree no. 126 of 1953, which merged the National Savings Bank (Caja Nacional de Ahorros), Mortgage Credit Savings Bank (Caja de Crédito Hipotecario), Agrarian Credit Savings Bank (Caja de Crédito Agrario) and Industrial Credit Institution (Instituto de Crédito Industrial) into a single institution.

By the end of 2009, BancoEstado was the third-largest bank in Chile, covering all areas of the country via branches or delegate banking contact points called CajaVecina (Spanish trade name roughly translatable as Neighbourhood Cashier). As of 2014, the bank had 364 branches, 107 smaller offices (ServiEstado), 3488 automated services (ATMs, dispensers and letter boxes) and 13,520 CajaVecina contact points. It is the only bank with presence in all municipalities in the country (with the exception of Antarctica), reaching geographically isolated areas where no other bank is present. Until 2014, the bank reached 77 localities that had no other banking services Since 2012, Global Finance magazine has ranked BancoEstado as the safest Bank in Latin America, while in 2015 it was ranked as the 48th-safest bank in the world (6th-safest in the Southern Hemisphere).