 It was founded in Betanzos, A Coruña (Spain) in 1717 by Juan Etcheverry (née Jean d’Etcheverry), a French businessman and tannery owner who had settled in Galicia.His family inherited and continued the bank business through generations; the primitive Etcheverry transformed the surname to Etcheverría to adapt to Spanish spelling (although the standard Spanish spelling is now Echeverría).The name comes from the Basque surname Etxeberria, meaning "new house".