List of oldest banks in continuous operation
Depending on the definition, the world's oldest bank is either Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena or Berenberg Bank. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was founded in its present form in 1624, but traces its history to a mount of piety founded in 1472. The Berenberg company was founded in 1590 and has operated continuously ever since with the same family as owners or major co-owners. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is today a large Italian retail bank, while Berenberg Bank is primarily involved in investment banking and private banking for wealthy customers; in any event Berenberg Bank is the world's oldest merchant bank or investment bank. The world's oldest central bank is the Sveriges Riksbank, which was founded in 1668.
National bank
Bulgarian national bank was founded on 25.01.1879 and it is the 13 oldest central bank in the world. Its headquarter is in Sofia. BNB is an independent institution responsible for the issuance of national currency (the Bulgarian lev) and maintenance of the bank system's stability. The bank has a key role in Bulgarian economy. Since 1.01.2007 the bank is a member of European system of central banks. The governor of BNB is a member of General Assembly of European central bank.
The bank has three departments:
- Issue Department - responsible to maintain the full foreign exchange cover of the total amount of monetary liabilities i.s. responsible for issuance of national currency;
-Banking department - in case of system risk, this department performs the lender of last resort function. This department performs the function of a monetary board, introduced in Bg, since 1997.
- Supervision Department - performs the supervision of the bank system.