Romania’s Strongest Trade Bank before WWII
Marmorosh-Blank used to be one of Romania’s strongest banking institutions before 1945
Steliu Lambru, 31.01.2026, 14:00
Marmorosh-Blank used to be one of Romania’s strongest banking institutions before 1945. It functioned under two generations of bankers, the first being that of founders Iacob Marmorosch and Mauriciu Blank. The second generation was represented by Aristide Blank, the son and heir of Mauriciu Blank.
Born in 1823 in Kolomea, which at that time was in Austria but today is a city in Ukraine, Marmorosch died in Vienna in 1905. He started as a money-changer and pawn-broker and in 1848 we found him in the commercial area of Bucharest, the Lipscani Street, where he started his career.
His business partner, Mauriciu Blank, was born 25 years later in 1848, in Pitești, the kingdom of Muntenia. After his period of studies in Vienna, Blank came back to Romania in 1863 and got hired by Marmorosch. Felicia Waldman is professor with the Bucharest University and wrote biographies of the Jewish people who lived in Bucharest. She has also followed the careers of the founders of the famous institution Marmorosch-Blank.
Felicia Waldman:” The bank was established in 1848 by Iacob Marmorosch, and in 1867 he hired Mauriciu Blank, who was only 15 at that time and he had just graduated from the Trade School in Vienna. Marmorosch actually hired Blank right when his bank and Mauriciu celebrated their 15th anniversaries. Mauriciu Blank was born in 1848, the year Marmorosch founded his bank. So, in ’67 Marmorosch hired Blank and in ’73 he got him as his partner and then he left him as the only owner of the aforementioned institution. This detail is very interesting and we don’t know why Marmorosch made that decision as he used to have a family at that time, he had children, you know. People used to think he didn’t have a family and that was the main reason for giving the bank to Mauriciu, whose actual name was Durrera el Blanco and he was a Sephardic Jew in spite of writing his name with a K.”
The Marmorosch-Blank was among the funders of Romania’s war efforts during the country’s war of independence in 1877 and 1878. After the war it continued to provide credits for a series of development projects in various economic sectors such as road infrastructure, insurance, banks, public buildings. A very dynamic institution, the bank associated itself with its German, French and Hungarian counterparts. According to Felicia Waldman, the period when Mauriciu Blank joined the banks managing board was the institution’s expansion peak but also the generational change.
Felicia Waldman:” He remained the only owner as early as 1900, but to honor the memory of Marmorosch, he continued to keep the institution’s name unchanged. Back in 1905, the bank was changed into a joint stock company. Blank was also a shareholder in the biggest enterprises such as Vulcan and Luther. It got involved in funding public works, such as roads and railways, which, of course, contributed to the development of trade. In 1912, Mauriciu’s son, Aristide Blank, and the bank’s director at that time, were invited to become part of the committee of founding the Academy of Economic Studies.
Between 1915 and 1923, when it was the strongest trade bank in Romania, its head-offices that are still visible in the Doamnei Street were built. The bank’s second office, that was built around 1848 was in the Ghermani Inn. The bank also had a third office at Lipscani 8. Back in 1920, the bank founded the National Culture Graphic Workshops, which it sold to the Romanian state in 1930. In 1923 the bank used to have 25 branches in the Romanian kingdom and four abroad, in Paris, Istanbul, Vienna and New York.”
The Marmorosh-Blank’s second generation of bankers included Mauriciu’s son, Aristide, born in Bucharest in 1883. Aristide was a complex personality; besides his banking business, he was a patron of the arts, writer, owner of publications. A Liberal, Aristide was one of the funders of Romania’s nationalist projects but he opposed the fascist far-right. A close friend to king Carol 2nd, he kept the control over his bank taken over by the Central Bank after the crash of 1931.
Marginalized in the 1940s during the dictatorship of Ion Antonescu, Blank tried to kick-start a banking business after the war, but his efforts were blocked by the communist regime, which nationalized the economy back in 1948. Sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1953, he was allowed to emigrate five years later following a series of foreign interventions. After two years he died in Paris at the age of 77.
Felicia Waldman:” He was one of the initiators and founding share-holders of Air France and if we check the company’s site, they admit that. Their webpage say the money came from the famous bank Marmorosch-Blank, initially via the French-Romanian Air Navigation Company, founded in 1920 by Aristide Blank and Pierre de Fleurieu. That was later turned into the International Air Navigation Company in 1925 and then Air France, after merging with four other companies in 1932 and its nationalization a year later. In 1922, the French-Romanian Air Navigation Company was to inaugurate the first inter-continental trade route Paris-Istanbul with a stopover in Baneasa.”
Marmorosch-Blank was the banking institutions, two generations of bankers created and used in keeping with the opportunities of their time. And through what it represented for Romania, it is one of the most consistent chapters in the history of the Romanian banking system.
(bill)
