The Bank of Central and South America was established in Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

 in 1922. The next year it acquired some of the assets of the Mercantile Bank of the Americas (est. 1915), including its entire interest in the National Bank of Nicaragua, Banco Mercantil de Costa Rica, Banco Mercantil Americano del Peru, Banco Mercantil Americano de Caracas and Banco Mercantil Americano de Colombia. It had a branch in Hamburg, and 22 branches in Latin America, including four in Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, six in Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, eight in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, four in Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

, and one in Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

.

The shareholders of the bank included the firms of J.P. Morgan & Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, Brown Brothers and Company, J. and W. Seligman and Company, the Corn Exchange Bank

Corn Exchange Bank

The Corn Exchange Bank was founded in 1853 in New York, but had branches in other states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. It was a retail bank that acquired many community banks. In 1929 it was renamed the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust Company. In 1954 it merged with Chemical Bank...

, the Mechanics and Metals National Bank

Mechanics and Metals National Bank

The Mechanics and Metals National Bank was founded in 1810 in New York as the Mechanics National Bank. In 1910 it merged with National Copper Bank , and took the Mechanics and Metals National Bank name. Between 1922 and 1925 it held a small ownership position in the Bank of Central and South...

, W.R. Grace and Company, and other interests. Despite its connections and experienced officers, the bank was not successful and in 1925 the Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada

The Royal Bank of Canada or RBC Financial Group is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The company corporate headquarters are located in Toronto,...

purchased the South American operations.

Source: Clyde William Phelps. 1927. The foreign expansion of American banks : American branch banking abroad. (New York: Arno Press, 1976).