Portugal was still a relatively poor country at the end of the First World War, and its banking system was small and undeveloped. The public viewed the commercial banks with suspicion, and growth of deposits and assets was very slow. The author examines events between the two wars and shows that the system changed considerably. Those banks that emerged in this period and learnt both to weather its storms, and to work within the highly regulated political regime in force from 1928, were to be Portugal's long‐term survivors. The events and policies of the two decades produced a financial system...

Portugal was still a relatively poor country at the end of the First World War, and its banking system was small and undeveloped. The public viewed the commercial banks with suspicion, and growth of deposits and assets was very slow. The author examines events between the two wars and shows that the system changed considerably. Those banks that emerged in this period and learnt both to weather its storms, and to work within the highly regulated political regime in force from 1928, were to be Portugal's long‐term survivors. The events and policies of the two decades produced a financial system that was becoming progressively less fragile, more concentrated, and more specialized. Public trust in the system increased, and there was a strong expansion in the level of deposits and, thus, of the money supply.