Though his older brothers, Edmond and Joseph, are often touted as being two of the most gifted bankers of family, Moise Safra was arguably the most influential of the three brothers, driving the family to become the “Rothschilds of Latin America” as some call them.
He wasn’t necessarily as skillful as Edmond or as intelligent Joseph, but he was instrumental in getting the family to split. And whilst this may sound weird, the family was better off for it.
Edmond went to New York and founded his own global banking empire, whilst Moise and Joseph remained in Brazil to enter the Brazilian banking trade, before ultimately expanding to the US, Switzerland and the Caymans among others…
Ancestry
Whilst the three Safra brothers may have been the most famous bankers of their family, they were by no means the first. A family of Sephardic Jews, their involvement in the world of finance goes back centuries.
Indeed, their family name – Safra – literally means “yellow” or more accurately, “gold” in Arabic.
Having settled in the city of Aleppo, then the city where East and West converged for trade and under the control of the Ottoman Empire, the Safra family established themselves as money changers, converting various African, European and Asian currencies for their gold and silver equivalents.
Proving quite adept at this task, the Safras soon rose to become one of the preeminent money changing institutions in the city and a favorite of many traders, who shared with them their continual struggle to find financiers for their highly profitable, but risky trade caravans.
Over the preceding years and decades, the family had expanded the firm beyond Aleppo to the Egyptian city of Alexandria and the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, establishing offices in those cities ran by trusted family members.
These offices similarly reported traders’ struggles to find financiers, and having good relationships with many of these traders, convinced the family to split the business. Half, would be dedicated to financing trade caravans, whilst the other half would continue the money changing business.
Established Safra Frères et Cie. in 1840, they quickly established themselves as a major player, and gained a reputation for financing only the most profitable caravans. A fact that made them a considerable fortune.
It was into this family, where Jacob Safra was born in January 1891.
Despite the loss of his father at an early age, Jacob was taken in by his uncle, Ezra, the head of the family bank. Trained to be his uncle’s successor, Jacob worked in both aspects of the business, impressing traders with his ability to mentally calculate exchange rates when his relatives still used conversion tables to help them.
His natural ability and favor with his uncles allowed him to rise the ranks of the family bank quickly, so much so that he became the bank’s youngest partner and was sent by his uncle to open the bank’s Beirut branch in 1914.
Early Life
Though only meant to expand the Safras’ influence, the postwar collapse of the Ottoman Empire and trade through Aleppo forced the family, including Jacob Safra, to relocate to Beirut, then a city home to a vibrant Jewish community.
In 1920, Jacob married his cousin (the daughter of another of his uncles, Yossef), Esther Teira Safra, in the Lebanese capital. A few months later, Jacob left the family bank to start his own, Banco Jacob E. Safra, to handle the finances of Syria and Lebanon’s wealthy Jews.
