ROYAL BANK OF CANADA

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29385, 12 December 1960, Page 23

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA

Cuban Assets Sold To State (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MONTREAL, December 8. The Royal Bank of Canada announced today that its Cuban assets had been sold to the National Bank of Cuba, the central bank of Cuba. The announcement from the Royal Bank’s head office in Montreal followed reports in Havana that the bank had been nationalised by the Government of Fidel Castro. The announcement said that under terms of "the sale, all its Cuban liabilities had been assumed by the Cuban central bank. The bank had 23 branches and more than 125 million dollars in assets in Cuba, the American Associated Press said. The announcement said: “In September and October of this year all banks—Cuban and foreign—with the exception only of the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia were nationalised. Because of the provisions of the Nationalisation Law and subsequent related decrees affecting banking business it soon became apparent that operation in Cuba could not be continued satisfactorily on an independent basis. “The Royal Bank of Canada has operated in Cuba since 1899. It discontinues its Cuban banking business with deep regret, but the arrangements reached with the central bank was on ’ an entirely amicable basis.”