El crédito bancario y el fomento industrial: una mirada sobre el crédito destinado a los industriales por el Banco República entre 1943 y 1958

This paper attempts to follow in consonance with the recent economic historiography that has started to pay more attention to the history of credit, the banking sector and, in particular, development banks in Latin America. The paper examines the credit directed towards industry by the Banco de la República between 1943 and 1958. The objective is to learn the incidence of bank credit on the financing and encouragement of industrial activities during a period in which the government sphere, through state direction, put into practice industrialization policies. This research shows that the official bank was the only institution that was able to explicitly extend development credit to the productive sectors, adapting it to their needs. At the same time, in light of the interest in promoting industry, the creation of a development bank was proposed. However, this project did not come to fruition, and ultimately ratified the responsibility of the República in this area. The bank advanced with the specialization of credit and deepened financial support for industry. However, because it continued to operate under traditional banking criteria and lacked resources specifically dedicated to meeting the credit needs of industry, its ability to play the role of a development bank was limited.