immense as the first one, it still granted him valuable control over Persian banking and mining with the energetic support of British minister, Henry Drummond Wolff. The Imperial Bank of Persia was finally established in 1889 on the basis of the 1872 concession to Baron Julius De Reuter from the Persian government (Reuter concession) which made it the state bank, with the exclusive right to issue notes and tax free status for sixty years. The Imperial Bank was publicly floated in London. There was a similar Russian bank known as the Loan and Discount Bank of Persia (Bānk-e Esteqrāżī-e Rūs) which was founded in 1890. The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 split Iran into a Russian and British sphere of influence. It assigned to the Russian Loan and Discount Bank the revenues from the amortization of Persian debts in northern Iran, and the same for the British Imperial Bank in southern Iran. Between 1889 and 1928, the bank operated as the state bank and bank of issue of Iran, and held a virtual monopoly on banking in the country. Sir William Keswick was the bank's chairman. The bank was principally funded by Glyn, Mills & Co., J. Henry Schröder & Co. and David Sassoon & Co. Despite holding a monopoly, the bank's management was farcical, according to Geoffrey Jones, and the bank struggled to make a profit. However, Jones also notes that British banks in this period were allowed to disguise their profits by making transfers to or from "inner" or "secret" reserves before reaching their published profits figure. The Imperial bank's real profits were on average twice as high as the published profits between 1890 and 1952. The bank contributed to the Iranian economy by mobilizing domestic savings, but many were doubtful of the real use of these savings as the Bank often "discriminated against Persians in giving credit". In 1927, 80% of the loans granted in Bushehr, Shiraz and Esfahan were to finance Iranian export of opium, whereas most of the loans in the northern cities related to the trade with Russia. The imperial bank did not employ locals as managers; in contrast, the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which was under mixed British, French and Turkish ownership employed middle eastern nationals in managerial positions. The bank's first owner, Joseph Rabino, born in London to an Italian Jewish family, was always regarded with great suspicion by his board. He served eighteen