Foundation .Once the Savings Bank and the Monte de Piedad de Madrid had been established, in 1839 the State Government ordered the opening of Savings Banks in all provincial capitals. In accordance with these instructions and taking into account the current legislation on Savings Banks, although supporting its freedom of action due to its status as a chartered municipality, the Vitoria City Council began the process of creating its Savings Bank. Once the agreement of the corporation, then presided over by Luis de Ajuria Atauri (see AJURIA ATAURI, Luis ), had been reached on 16 October 1850, the Savings Bank of Vitoria began to operate on 19 November of that year. In this case, as in others, the personality of this mayor was key to its beginning and consolidation. Likewise, the situation of the population of Vitoria was the stimulus to propose the birth of an institution that would allow the savings of the humble, as a protective umbrella against the calamitous circumstances they were going through.
It was the first Savings Bank in the Basque Country (see SAVINGS BANKS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY ) and the model on which the other three municipal savings banks that were successively established in Pamplona, Donostia-San Sebastián and Bilbao were based, and it was also one of the first in Spain. In this case, as would happen later in the aforementioned cities, the City Council took responsibility for the funds that were entered, which gave security to the savers and important benefits to the City Council, which was able to use the funds as it saw fit. Regulations were drawn up, later approved by the corporation, and members of a board of directors in charge of managing the institution were appointed, chaired by the mayor, beginning its operations on November 24, 1850. This first Regulation would be modified several times as advised by the passage of time, the progress of the entity, the legislation and Vitorian society.