Banque de la Guyane

The Banque de la Guyane was a bank of issue in the territory of French Guiana.

[1] Its first chief executive (French: directeur) was Jean-Baptiste Bellamy, who in 1857 moved on to head the Banque de la Martinique.

[2] The bank lost its issuance privilege in the turmoil of World War II, when the Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer (CCFOM) was designated as monetary authority for the island and other French Caribbean territories on 1 July 1944.

[3]: 23  In practice, the Banque de la Guyane kept issuing the French Guianan franc until 1952 by delegation of the CCFOM.

It remained in activity as a commercial bank, the only one in French Guiana until the Banque Française Commerciale opened there in the late 1970s.

Head office building on Place Victor-Schoelcher, Cayenne, with Schoelcher's statue on the right
Banknote of the Banque de la Guyane, second quarter of the 20th century