Banco Hipotecario 3.2

Banco Hipotecario is a leading commercial bank in Argentina and the nation's premier mortgage lender.OverviewThe institution was chartered on September 24, 1886, as the Banco Hipotecario Nacional by a bill signed by President Julio Roca. The bank pioneered mortgage lending on extended, low-interest terms in Argentina, and thus contributed to consolidating a modern Argentine economy .The bank continued to grow and, during the administration of President Hipólito Yrigoyen, its share of the nation's mortgages doubled to 37%. The headquarters relocated in 1942 from its original, Baroque headquarters in the financial district to a larger, Rationalist office building facing Plaza de Mayo. The bank again grew significantly during President Juan Perón's populist administration, boosting its loan portfolio from 100,000 mortgages in 1946 to 500,000 a decade later.During the Perón years, the bank began advancing home ownership by promoting direct lending to builders, and by allowing an accelerated amortization of its loans, whereby borrowers' 4% mortgages were mitigated further by inflation, which averaged 26% from 1944 to 1974; as two-thirds of the institution's loans at the time were on a 15- or 20-year basis, this became an important subsidy for local borrowers, extending home ownership to a majority of households.