As you explore the streets of Habana Vieja,particularly O’Reilly, Obrapria, Compostella and Lamparilla, you frequently spot buildings or parts of buildings that remain from the days prior to the Revolution when Cuba was a Caribbean capitalist hub. Banks and insurance companies including many from the USA and Canada flourished on the island building impressive presence in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
Some these impressive edifices are residential or vacant but many have been repurposed and are today part of the Havana cityscape. Today a few of the world’s banks have representation in Cuba but in terms of powerful financial towers, none can rival the impressive buildings (or signs that they were once here) left over from another era.
Today the building continues to provide banking in its impressive hall as the Banco Metropolitano.

This building might have been the Havana Stock Market but is also described as The Bank of Canada. Today it is a well known casa particular