It was created in February 1911, in the town of Tolosa. Its promoters were local landowners and industrialists. From the outset, it was clear that this new entity aimed to serve the industrial interests of the region, as its founders, as well as the Board of Directors and early shareholders, were individuals connected to the industrial sector around Tolosa. The founding act included Ladislao Zavala (who would later become president of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa), a lawyer by profession, the landowner Francisco Zubeldia, and the industrialists Gervasio Arámburu and Gregorio Mendía. Its first Board of Directors consisted, in addition to the promoters Zubeldia, Arámburu and Mendía, of the industrialists Pedro Limousin, Joaquín Elósegui and Juan Urquiola, all residents of this town in Gipuzkoa.
The ties its shareholders and the industry of Tolosaldea were evident, not only through the personal involvement of industrialists but also through the participation of paper companies such as Araxes, Echezarreta, Ruiz de Arcaute & Co., and the beret factory of the Elósegui family, who were also shareholders of the bank.
The Bank of Tolosa also sought to appeal to the region's agricultural community, offering them financial services and encouraging them to become shareholders or future clients. It must be remembered that agricultural activity was fundamental in 1911, despite the growing importance of industry in the region. For this reason, from its earliest steps, the bank launched an appeal in Basque to the agricultural world, using very expressive language. It is interesting to pause, if only briefly, on the opening lines of this document from the Bank of Tolosa addressed to honest Basque farmers (Tolosako Bankuba: Euskaldun nekazari zintzuak), which, in its Spanish version, highlighted the importance and wealth that banks represented:
“To those who live far away and even in hidden places, it must have reached you; or to those who do not yet know it, that there are places called BANKS; and to those who have been to Donostia, Bilbao, or other similar cities, you must have seen large, beautiful, and elegant buildings with attractive signs identifying them, where, in those banks, there are pesetas in abundance…”
This paragraph and the rest of the text highlight a time when banks were rare, especially in villages and small towns in the province. It is worth recalling that in 1911, in Gipuzkoa, only the Banco Guipuzcoano, founded in 1899, had a few branches in the province. In contrast, the presence of the Bank of San Sebastián, founded in 1909, was still non-existent in the province, as it only opened its first branch there in 1912 (in Irún). Thus, the Bank of Tolosa represented a significant innovation, since at that time, only one agency of Banco Guipuzcoano had opened in the town in 1906. However, the market available to the Bank of Tolosa to attract clients was very limited. If the bank aimed to serve and benefit from the commercial operations generated by the region’s industry—which was rich in production units but modest in size—its scope of action was narrow. It was therefore logical for it to also try to attract customers from the rural world, whose importance in the local economy was still notable.
This desire to attract a large number of shareholders, even if they were small, and to engage a wide customer base was reflected in the nominal value of the shares of the Bank of Tolosa. The initial share capital was set at one and a half million pesetas, divided into shares with a nominal value of 25 pesetas, making share acquisition accessible and allowing for the inclusion of a large number of shareholders, both big and small. In fact, the shares were quickly subscribed, almost exclusively by residents of Tolosa.
When comparing these figures with those of other financial institutions of the same period in Gipuzkoa, the difference is considerable. For example, the share capital of the Bank of San Sebastián, founded in 1909, amounted to 10 million pesetas, with a nominal share value of 250 pesetas. As for Banco Guipuzcoano, founded in 1899, its capital was 5 million pesetas, quickly increased, and the nominal value of its shares reached 500 pesetas.
During its first years, despite its limited capital, the Bank of Tolosa benefited from favorable economic conditions during World War I. The volume of its operations rose from 27 million pesetas in 1911 to 79 million in 1915, and to 276 million five years later. Its reserves also began to appear in the financial statements from 1915 onwards. The positive effects of World War I were also reflected in other banking indicators of the institution, mainly due to the prosperity of the local industry. Profits rose from only 20,000 pesetas in 1915 to nearly 150,000 in 1920, and reached 330,000 pesetas in 1925. However, like other institutions, the crisis that began in the late 1920s also affected the Bank of Tolosa. In relative terms, profits in 1930 fell by more than 15% compared to 1925.
Despite the growth observed during the first 15 years of activity, the share capital did not increase. It was only in 1942 that it was doubled, following a decision made by the shareholders' assembly. That same year, an agreement was also signed the Bank of Tolosa and the Bank of Bilbao. From that point on, the Gipuzkoan financial entity became largely dependent on the Bilbao bank.
When it seemed that the Bank of Bilbao's influence would lead to Tolosa’s integration into it, it was the Central Bank that, at the end of the 1960s, acquired the small Gipuzkoan entity after more than 50 years of operation. Thus, the Central Bank was able to establish its offices in the Gipuzkoan town simply by acquiring the Bank of Tolosa, which then had capital of 40.5 million pesetas and deposits amounting to nearly 715 million.
Thus ended the history of a local bank in Gipuzkoa, born from a group of industrialists in Tolosa, with the aim of supporting the financial operations of local industry and the modest economy of part of the population linked to agriculture. The expansion of the Bank of Tolosa beyond its local scope was never part of its goals. Its trajectory, marked by limited capital and its inability to compete with larger institutions, nonetheless served to fulfill its founding objectives. After celebrating its golden anniversary, the Bank of Tolosa had to disappear, given the evolution of the banking sector, which no longer resembled the circumstances of 1911.