Foundation
The Bilbao City Council, following the instructions received from the State Government, tried to create a Savings Bank in the Biscayan capital in 1845 but, at that time, it did not want to commit itself to its support and financing, entrusting this task to a group of notables from Bilbao. This savings bank operated for some time, opening on Sunday mornings and collecting the savings of the most humble people, whose income was always scarce. By the time the Banco de Bilbao opened its doors in 1857, the savings bank had already closed and included a savings section in its operations to collect the surplus of the most modest family economies.
The repatriation of capital, which led to the colonial disaster in 1898, stimulated the Biscayan economy and established a solid financial framework. Perhaps that is why the opening of a savings bank was not considered as necessary as in other places, since the different banks that operated in the capital (Banco de Bilbao, Banco de Comercio, Banco de Vizcaya and Crédito la Unión Minera) had their own savings section. However, it was considered necessary to found a Monte de Piedad and, at the end of the 19th century, there was an unsuccessful attempt by the City Council to do so. It was intended to serve to fight against the usurers who ended up ruining people when they fell into an economic crisis due to lack of work or any other circumstance. But nothing came of it until 1905.
That year, the then mayor, Gregorio de Ibarreche, presented a motion for the creation of the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad (Savings Bank and Pawnbroking Institution) (19-9-1905). A commission was set up, whose members included Gregorio Balparda (see BALPARDA LAS HERRERIAS, Gregorio de) who continued with this project when he was appointed mayor in 1905, and who some consider to be the alma mater of the Caja. Balparda was a Balmaseda lawyer and prominent monarchist politician who set out to set up a Caja and Monte de Piedad, following the already established model, to help alleviate the problems of the working class at the time. He resigned due to political circumstances before the founding Order of the Caja arrived on 15 January 1907, so he was unable to see the new institution from his post as mayor.
Another fundamental man in the evolution of this savings bank was Eliseo Migoya Torre (1881-1957) (see, MIGOYA TORRE, Eliseo), of monarchist tendencies and member of the Bilbao Society El Sitio, he was a lawyer and advisor to the savings bank from its foundation and later director; promoter of the Spanish Confederation of Charitable Savings Banks, of which he became its first president (10 December 1927), and member of the Standing Committee of the International Savings Institute. For his work at the head of this institution he was awarded the Gran Cruz de Beneficencia and became Director General of Debt and Pensionable Classes (1939-1941) under Finance Minister José Larraz.