eabh (The European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V.) is a non-profit association founded in 1990 in Frankfurt am Main aimed at promoting research on banking history and the preservation of historically valuable archive material of public and private banking institutions.
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The eabh is formed by banking and insurance companies, archivists and historians, and its main purpose is to promote and encourage academic projects in the field of banking history. The Association also supports the preservation of historical documents relating to banking and finance and fosters dialogue between European bankers, academics and archivists. The eabh currently has 80 member organisations.
Foundation
The European Association for Banking History e.V. was founded on 29 November 1990 in an inaugural meeting at the premises of Deutsche Bank, in Frankfurt am Main, by 22 banking institutions and one academic institution from 20 European countries. Manfred Pohl, German business historian and head of ‘Historisches Institut der Deutschen Bank’ (1972–2000), was the responsible for the creation of the forum that could lead to the foundation of the eabh. During the ‘European Colloquium on Banking History’ held in Frankfurt on February 9, 1989 Pohl launched the idea of creating an association for banking history and decided to gather European scholars and banking institutions’ archivists in a working group to draft the first statutes. Other members of the first eabh Board of Management were Wilfried Guth, Chairman of the Board of Patrons; Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, Chairman; Herman van der Wee, Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council; Pedro Martinez Mendez, Treasurer and Robert Lion, Member. On the 28th May 2004 the Association conducted a general survey in the 15th General Members’ Meeting and decided to change its name to eabh (European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V.), as a commitment to embracing financial history in a wider sense.
Organization chart
The General Members' Assembly is the supreme organ of the association and meets yearly. The eabh is governed by the Board of Management and advised by the Board of Patrons and the Academic Council. It has as well a General Secretariat, neuralgic centre of the eabh in charge of implementation, management and coordination of all the initiatives organised by the association and with seat in Frankfurt. The Secretary General acts as Executive Manager of the Association. The Association’s founder Manfred Pohl was Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management since 1990 and was elected Honorary Chairman for life in 2015. The eabh publishes studies and conference papers. It also organises numerous conferences, academic symposia, workshops and seminars in various European towns and locations. Every year they hold a main conference in which archivists, historians and representatives of the financial community from all over Europe come together to discuss matters of common interest.
Archives
On July 2014 the eabh transferred its documents to the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) in Florence. This material relates to the creation of the Association and includes the work of its governing bodies and its activities: workshop material, board meeting protocols, publication material and photographs.