All about Zakynthos
The Ionian Bank (Bankos) was founded by decision of the Ionian Senate on 23 October 1839 and was housed in the Forrestis mansion.
On 5 March 1883 it was registered as a joint-stock company under the name Ionian Bank Limited.
The Cephalonian Spyridon Forrestis was an Anglophile and consul of England in Zakynthos first and in Corfu later.
In 1807 he married his young daughter Helen Forrestis to Antonios Komoutos, the prince of the Ionian State and president of the Ionian Senate.
During the second French occupation of the Ionian Islands (1807-1809) he was exiled to Malta.
He corresponded, however, with the huspand of his daughter Antonio Commouto and managed to persuade him to cooperate with the British when they occupied Zakynthos in 1809.
Finally, in 1827, at Bankos' reparo, Ioannis Kapodistrias and the admirals of England, France and Russia left their ships and went down to the Forrestis mansion where the council for the expulsion of Ibrahim from the Peloponnese took place.
