The European Association for Banking and Financial History (''eabh'') is an independent,

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

association based in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Founded in 1990, ''eabh'' aims to promote research on banking history; support the preservation historically valuable archive material of public and private banking institutions; and facilitate dialogue on key challenges and opportunities to the historical study of

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

, and

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

. It maintains a global network of financial professionals and academics who meet to discuss and encourage projects in the field of financial and banking history. The ''eabh'' currently has 80 member organisations.

Foundation

The European Association for Banking History e.V. (''eabh'') was founded on 29 November 1990 in an inaugural meeting at the premises of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, in Frankfurt am Main, by 22 banking institutions and one academic institution from 20 European countries. Manfred Pohl, German business historian and head of ‘Historisches Institut der Deutschen Bank’ (1972–2000), was responsible for the creation of the forum that would lead to the foundation of ''eabh''. During the ‘European Colloquium on Banking History’ held in Frankfurt on 9 February 1989 Pohl launched the idea of creating an association for banking history and decided to gather European scholars and banking institutions’ archivists in a working group to draft the first statutes. Other members of the first ''eabh'' Board of Management were Wilfried Guth, chairman of the Board of Patrons; Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman; Herman Van der Wee, Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council; Pedro Martinez Mendez, Treasurer and Robert Lion, Member.

Wim Duisenberg Willem Frederik "Wim" Duisenberg (; 9 July 1935 – 31 July 2005) was a Dutch politician and economist who served as President of the European Central Bank from 1 June 1998 until 31 October 2003. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). Du ...

, then president of

De Nederlandsche Bank De Nederlandsche Bank (, , abbr. DNB) is the national central bank for the Netherlands within the Eurosystem. It was the Dutch central bank from 1814 to 1998, issuing the guilder. Since 2014, it has also been the country's national competent au ...

, opened the first annual ''eabh'' conference, ‘How to Write the History of a Bank’ on 16 September 1992. Two members of ''eabh'', Youssef Cassis and Philip L. Cottrell, subsequently began the organisation's dedicated

academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

, the '' Financial History Review''. On 7 December 2000, ''eabh'' celebrated its 10th anniversary at a

symposium, 'Banking in the Mirror of Time’. On 28 May 2004 the Association conducted a general survey in the 15th General Members’ Meeting and decided to change its name to ''eabh'' (European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V.), as a commitment to embracing financial history in a wider sense. In 2018, ''eabh'' added its first member institution on the African continent, the Banco de Moçambique.

Governance

The ''eabh'' is governed by the Board of Management and advised by the Board of Patrons and Academic Council. The primary decision-making body is the General Members' Assembly, which meets annually. The Association's founder Manfred Pohl served as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management from 1990 and was elected Honorary Chairman for life in 2015. Past presidents of the organization include: * 1990: Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, N M Rothschilds & Sons * 2004:

President of the European Central Bank The president of the European Central Bank is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), the main institution responsible for the management of the euro and monetary policy in the Eurozone of the European Union (EU) The current president of ...

* 2006: Jean-Claude Trichet,

* 2012: Hugo Bänziger, (

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

) Past Chairman of ''eabh'' Academic Advisory Council include: * 1990: Herman Van der Wee, University of Leuven * 1998: Gabriel Tortella Casares, University of Alcalá, Madrid * 2004: Gerald D. Feldman,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

* 2008: Peter Hertner,

University of Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

* 2013: Harold James,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Activities

The ''eabh'' publishes studies and conference papers. It also organises numerous conferences, academic symposia, workshops and seminars in various European towns and locations. Every year they hold a main conference in which archivists, historians and representatives of the financial community from all over Europe come together to discuss matters of common interest.

Publications

The main publication of ''eabh'' is the triannual ''Financial History Review'' (''FHR''), published in tandem with

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. Founded in 1994, the ''FHR'' is the sole

dedicated to financial, banking and monetary history. It regulately publishes original research that discus the intersections of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, and

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

. Alongside the ''FHR'', ''eabh'' publishes a working paper series (since 2014), a book series, and a bulletin.

Conferences

The ''eabh'' hosts a number of conferences and workshops designed to bring together academics and scholars of financial and banking history. Often these conferences are co-sponsored with other

non-profits A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

business organizations A business entity is an entity that is formed and administered as per corporate law in order to engage in business activities, charitable work, or other activities allowable. Most often, business entities are formed to sell a product or a serv ...

corporations A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

central banks A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the monet ...

, or

commercial banks A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit (finance), deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a Profit (economics), profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division o ...

. The discussions at these conferences aim to contribute to ongoing policy debates. Recent conferences include: *October 2019, ''Minting History: Financial history at face value'', with the Rothschild Archive *October 2018, ''Institutional Investors: The history of professional fund management'', with

Schroders Schroders plc is a British multinational asset management company headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1804, it employs over 6,000 people worldwide in 38 locations around Europe, America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It is traded on ...

and Banque Lombard Odier *October 2017, ''Money in Africa: Monetary and financial decolonisation in Africa in the 20th Century'', with the

Banco de Portugal The Banco de Portugal (, ) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Portugal within the Eurosystem. It was the Portuguese central bank from 1846 to 1998, issuing the Portuguese escudo, escudo. Since 2014, it has also ...

and

Banque de France The Bank of France ( ) is the national central bank for France within the Eurosystem. It was the French central bank between 1800 and 1998, issuing the French franc. It does not translate its name to English, and thus calls itself ''Banque de ...

*June 2017, ''Legacy of finance: The legacy of the haute-banque in the world. From the 19th to the 21st century'', with

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas (; sometimes referred to as BNPP or BNP) is a French multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial instituti ...

*May 2017, ''Innovation in archives & Innovative responses to financial crises'', with the

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is one of 12 Federal Reserve System, regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the United States' central bank. Missouri is the only state to have two main ...

*June 2012, ''European Association for Banking and Financial History Annual Conference'', with

National Bank of Romania The National Bank of Romania (, BNR) is the central bank of Romania and was established in April 1880. Its headquarters are located in the capital city of Bucharest. The National Bank of Romania is responsible for the issue of the Romanian le ...

References

External links

Website of ''eabh'' (The European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V.)
{{Authority control Research institutes established in 1990 Organisations based in Frankfurt Banking organizations History of banking Economic history societies Economic history journals History of business Business and finance professional associations 1990 establishments in Germany

Foundation

Governance

Activities

Archives

Publications

Conferences

See also

Organizations

Publications

References

External links