Banco del Estado de Chile

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Banco del Estado de Chile, known as BancoEstado, is Chile’s only public bank. Created in 1953 by merging four state savings and credit institutions—Caja Nacional de Ahorros, Caja de Crédito Hipotecario, Caja de Crédito Agrario, and Instituto de Crédito Industrial—it is based in Santiago and serves all of Chile, with a branch in New York. BancoEstado focuses on reaching unbanked people and small and medium-sized companies, but serves customers of all kinds. It is the country’s largest mortgage lender and the biggest issuer of debit cards, and it handles some government banking activities through the General Treasury.

The bank operates a nationwide network of branches, neighborhood savings points called CajaVecina, ServiEstado offices, and thousands of ATMs, and it is present in every commune in Chile, even in Antarctica. Since 2012 Global Finance has named BancoEstado the safest bank in Latin America, and in 2015 it ranked 48th in the world for safety. It opened a New York branch in 2005 and runs programs like BancoEstado Cine to support Chilean film. BancoEstado is an autonomous state-owned company regulated by its Organic Law and supervised by the Bank and Financial Institution Board, with the Ministry of Finance acting as the government link.