The archive
How the Banque d'Orient documents were gathered, saved and digitised, and what is still missing.
An archive that did not exist
In 2011, when the bearers first asked for the merger contract and the liquidation accounts, no public body held a complete file. Deed 147611/1932 was not in the notarial archive, nor in the General State Archives, nor at the Ministry, nor at NBG itself D44 D47.
The case archive had to be built from scratch, document by document, from archives, libraries, courts and families in five countries. That work began in the early 2000s, in libraries and museums in Greece, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Egypt, and continues.
Where the documents were found
NBG's Historical Archive. After a court decision of 2012 and a prosecutor's order of 2013, the bearers obtained certified copies from it: the ledger of the liquidation account D14, letters of the legal department D13, the liquidators' minutes D20 D21 and the correspondence of the Egyptian branches D37. In September 2014 the Historical Archive handed over a further series of documents, with a protocol recording liquidation files up to 1966 D38. In the same archive's database, the liquidation files of the Egyptian branches run to 1974, marked "material not available for research".
The French archives. The archives of the French Ministry of Finance yielded the 1905 dispatch on the bank's founding D02 and the file on the listing of the shares on the Paris Bourse in 1910 D04. From France also come the Crédit Lyonnais certificate of 1951 D34, the inheritance-tax certificate of 1956 D36 and certificates bearing Paris stamps D35. The Bibliothèque nationale de France was asked about the 1937 issue of La Bourse Égyptienne on which NBG relies D22.
The historical press. Seventy-eight issues of the financial press of 1928 to 1940, mostly of the Oikonomikos Tachydromos, were scanned page by page: Stock Exchange notices, half-yearly liquidation statements, NBG balance sheets D12.
The State and the courts. The Government Gazette D01 D07 D10, the Ministry of Finance D29, the Court of Audit and the Council of State D30, and the Legal Council of the State D39.
The certificates themselves. Shares and coupons kept by families in Greece and abroad, photographed and recorded with their numbers and stamps D05 D35. The stamps are also what tells genuine certificates from the fakes in circulation.
The search, year by year
The chronicle is drawn from the bearers' published articles and correspondence of 2012 to 2016. The dates are those of the documents.
The research begins in libraries and museums in Greece, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Egypt, with one question: was a liquidation balance sheet ever published in the Gazette's company bulletin? In the Library of Parliament the microfilms had been shuffled after building works. At the Benakeios Library, in the former Public Tobacco Factory, days at the microfilm reader show that no accounting statement of the Banque d'Orient was ever published.
On a later visit, the same section states that the bulletins consulted "had never been microfilmed". In the Benakeios print volumes the years 1935 to 1937 are missing, in the Library of Parliament the bulletins of 1936 and 1937. Complete copies of the bulletin for 1930 to 1940 are ordered from every available source. In Parliament's bound volume the issue carrying the merger contract has been removed; it is later found in a closed collection of Parliament.
Letters to the Governor of the Bank of Greece and to NBG's management for the contract, the accounts and the half-yearly statements. In its Historical Archive's own publications NBG lists an "Archive of the Banque d'Orient, 1904 to 1959".
Bearers and their lawyers meet NBG's legal department at 86 Aiolou Street. The bank states that it seeks a judicial outcome and regards the claim as time-barred.
At the hearing NBG's witness, the head of its Historical Archive, testifies that the archive holds about 250 Banque d'Orient share certificates. They were not in the 8,500-page catalogue that NBG's legal department had offered for 4,250 euros as photocopying costs. The next day the bearers' lawyers ask to see them; they are told to apply in writing. When the certificates are finally produced, 64 of them carry the 1951 registration stamp of the General Supervisor of the Athens Stock Exchange.
NBG answers the prosecutor's order for the signed liquidation balance sheet with a reference to the same 8,500 pages. With the same catalogue it also defeats the application for production of documents (decision of 2014).
Letter to NBG's legal department: every invitation to the Historical Archive means a journey to Athens at the bearer's expense, and the documents the bank promises are not there. In court, the bank's officers had admitted that thousands of pages on the Banque d'Orient lie in warehouses at Magoula, Attica, a location absent from the archive's electronic catalogue.
A question to the Bibliothèque nationale de France about the origin of the 18 October 1937 issue of La Bourse Égyptienne on which NBG relies. The reply: the index card says only "Don Suez, 1934 to 1939", with no date or source; the donations register for 1930 to 1970 records no such gift; the Library cannot vouch for the authenticity of its holdings. Two visits to Paris: the microfilm is examined, not the original. The Stanford and Library of Congress collections and the ICON international newspaper centre do not hold the issue.
NBG's Historical Archive produces nine documents and one certificate, 14 pages in all, and supplies copies D38.
Bearers go to the Historical Archive twice, on 16 November and 10 December, to have the 2012 order for production of documents enforced. On both occasions the police are called, by both sides. No documents are produced.
The action is filed with 105 exhibits. Emily J. Will's forensic report follows in November D49. From here on the search continues inside the court file, with a further series of exhibits on appeal.
What the archive holds
The records run from the statute of 1904 to the court documents of 2026. Most are scans of originals or certified copies; a part consists of transcriptions and translations made for the courts.
- Laws, decrees and Gazette issues23
- Contracts and notarial deeds9
- Balance sheets and ledgers47
- Expert reports and opinions4
- Correspondence of banks and authorities55
- Court decisions and prosecutors' orders23
- Share certificates and coupons42
- Press items, 1928 to 194078
- Court exhibits and annexes345
- Other scans and records560
Digitisation
Every document was scanned as a PDF or image and described by date, issuer, content and place in the case file. The liquidation ledger, 73 pages, was scanned in full D14. The scans exceed 16,000 pages and 9 GB, and are kept in more than one copy, in different places.
The facsimiles on this site come from those scans. The 27 documents on the documents page carry a stable identifier so that they can be cited. The full register is published in the books.
What is still missing
- The original of deed 147611/1932 and the file of its ministerial approval.
- The October 1937 issue of La Bourse Égyptienne in which, according to NBG, the "final statement" was published.
- The files of the Egypt liquidation office from 1938 to 1974.
- The statements of the liquidation account after August 1938.
- Certificates, coupons and correspondence still held by families, in Greece, France, Egypt and elsewhere.
How you can help
If you hold Banque d'Orient shares or coupons, or letters, receipts and photographs connected with the bank, photograph them front and back and send us the images, with a few words on where they came from. Do not send originals.
Archives, libraries and researchers with related material may request copies from the case archive and contribute their own.
This site does not buy, sell or value certificates.