Background

With the aim of creating adequate legislation, aimed at regulating banking activity and the issuance of currency, on March 6, 1882, and by Decree, the first Banking Law was promulgated. In its article 1, this law establishes that "issue banks may be freely established and managed in the territory of the Republic, under the conditions set forth in this Law." All banks could be issuers, since there was no monopoly for the issuance of the national currency.

On January 19, 1887, the Bank of Nicaragua was created, the country's first commercial bank. It began operations on February 23, 1888 with the power to issue banknotes. Later it was transformed into the “Bank of Nicaragua Limited”, with headquarters in London, to later join the “London Bank of Central America Limited”, which continued to operate as a foreign branch.

At the beginning of the 20th century, by means of the Presidential Decree of June 6, 1911, the Government of Nicaragua authorized a banking concession in favor of the North American bankers Brown Brothers & Company, of New York, by which a Banking Corporation would be constituted with Nicaraguan shareholding, which would operate under the laws of the United States. This bank emerged with the name of "Banco Nacional de Nicaragua, Incorporado", or "National Bank of Nicaragua, Incorporated", beginning its operations in 1912, with its main headquarters in the city of Managua.