[citation needed] Among the main founders of the bank were José de Salamanca, Nazario Carriquiri, Alejandro Aguado, Gaspar Remisa, José Buschenthal, and Domingo de Norzagaray.
[3] The bank had initial capital of 100 million reales in shares and credits.
[4] It made generous loans to industrial and mining enterprises, but also to prominent members of the Spanish royal family such as the queen mother and former regent Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies and her husband, both of whom speculated heavily in railways.
It favored the Moderate governments of General Ramón María Narváez.
It bought shares of other French and British financial institutions, some of which were its own creditors.