The Bank of the Republic of Haiti (French: Banque de la République d'Haïti, abbreviated BRH) is the central bank of Haiti. It was formed in 1979 from the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti (French: Banque Nationale de la République d'Haïti), which had served as the country's bank of issue since 1910, itself succeeding the National Bank of Haiti.
The bank is active in promoting financial inclusion policy and is a member institution of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. It recently announced a Maya Declaration Commitment to continue with the modernization of the payment system, and submit legislation to regulate and supervise micro finance institutions to relevant authorities in 2013.[2]
The central bank in Port-au-Prince was stormed during the Haitian riots of 2024. The attack was driven back by the bank's security guards leaving 3 people killed.[3]
Background
National Bank of Haiti, 1907Former headquarters of the BNRH in the 1910s at 55, rue de Chateaudun in Paris
The oldest reference to a bank in Haiti can be attributed to a short correspondence exchanged during September 1825 between a foreign tradesman, Nicholas Kane, the Secretary of State Balthazar Inginac about a proposal made by George Clark in the name of a German group, Hermann Hendrick and Co., to establish a bank in Haiti. However, the proposal was never accepted, and Hermann Hendrick and Co. was never established.
A Haitian law of 1880 allowed for a currency issuance concession to be granted to a privileged bank, and the National Bank of Haiti was subsequently established in Paris in early 1881 by the French bank Crédit Industriel et Commercial. In October 1910, the issuance concession was transferred to a new bank, the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BNRH) formed by a consortium of French, German and American interests. The National City Bank of New York took over the BNRH following the United States occupation of Haiti,[4] and gained full ownership in 1919. In 1935, the Haitian government acquired the BNRH from National City Bank.[5] In 1979, BNRH was split into two financial institutions: the Banque nationale de crédit [fr] (BNC), a commercial bank, and the Bank of the Republic of Haiti.
