Business Empire of Julio Herrera Velutini: Bancredito and Britannia Financial Group

A Two-Platform Strategy

The business record of Julio Herrera Velutini is defined by two distinct institutional projects. The first was Bancredito International Bank and Trust Corporation, established in Puerto Rico in 2008. The second is Britannia Financial Group, headquartered in London, which he built in stages between 2012 and 2016. Together, they represent an approach to international banking built on regulated platforms designed to operate across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously — not by maintaining a large domestic presence, but by connecting capital where it needs to move.

The two institutions were not sequential — Bancredito and the early stages of Britannia overlapped for several years. That parallel construction reflects a deliberate strategy: rather than concentrating risk in a single regulatory environment, the model spread operations across different legal systems, giving the overall business architecture a degree of resilience that single-market banks do not possess.

Bancredito International Bank and Trust Corporation

Bancredito International Bank and Trust Corporation was founded in Puerto Rico in 2008. The territory’s regulatory framework — governed by U.S. federal banking law but with its own tax and licensing structure — made it a practical base for an institution designed to serve high-net-worth and institutional clients in Latin America.

The bank maintained capital in excess of $60 million and employed more than one hundred staff at its peak. Its service model covered private banking, corporate banking, and institutional banking, with a client base concentrated in Latin American markets. A subsidiary, Bancredito Financial Services, provided fiduciary and advisory services.

In 2017, the group established Consultiva Holding, which acquired a controlling stake in Consultiva International, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm with offices in Puerto Rico and New York. At the time of acquisition, the firm managed more than $3 billion in assets under advisory, extending the group’s reach into U.S.-regulated investment advisory services.

Bancredito’s trajectory was disrupted by regulatory action in 2023, when the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a consent order and administrative penalty related to Bank Secrecy Act compliance deficiencies. The bank subsequently entered receivership and was liquidated. Bancredito Holding Corporation, the bank’s sole shareholder, has filed civil litigation in Puerto Rico and Florida challenging the professional conduct of legal counsel involved in the receivership proceedings.

Britannia Wealth Management: The Geneva Starting Point

In 2012, four years after founding Bancredito, Herrera Velutini established Britannia Wealth Management in Geneva, Switzerland. The choice of Geneva was deliberate: the city is one of Europe’s principal private banking centers, with deep institutional infrastructure, a mature regulatory framework, and a client base that skews heavily toward international wealth.

The Geneva operation provided regulated asset management services for high-net-worth international clients — a different profile from Bancredito’s Latin American-focused institutional banking. From the outset, the intention was to build something broader.

Britannia Financial Group: The London Expansion

In 2016, Herrera Velutini restructured the Geneva operation into Britannia Financial Group, a holding company headquartered in London. The London structure allowed the group to consolidate its subsidiaries under a single governance framework while accessing the depth of the U.K. financial market, FCA regulation, and the reputational weight that a City of London address carries in international private banking.

The group’s subsidiaries, as currently structured, include Britannia Capital Markets Limited, an FCA-authorised securities broker in the United Kingdom; Britannia Wealth Management in Switzerland; Britannia Bank and Trust in the Bahamas; Britannia Securities in the Bahamas; Britannia Capital Markets in the MENA region; and Britannia Global Investment and Britannia Global Payments in the United Kingdom.

In 2019, Britannia Financial Group acquired Berkley Futures, a London-based brokerage founded in 1980. Berkley holds memberships in the London Metal Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, and the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange — a combination that significantly broadened the group’s execution capabilities across asset classes and geographies.

Service Model and Client Profile

Britannia Financial Group’s service model covers three principal areas. The first is wealth management for high-net-worth individuals and family offices, with particular emphasis on clients whose portfolios span multiple jurisdictions. The second is capital markets execution across equities, fixed income, commodities, and derivatives. The third is cross-border financial structuring for clients navigating complex multi-regulatory environments.

The geographic distribution of the group’s entities — London, Geneva, Nassau, the MENA region — reflects a deliberate positioning at the points where capital most frequently needs to cross regulatory lines. Latin American private wealth moving into European markets, or MENA capital accessing London exchanges, requires exactly the kind of regulated multi-jurisdictional platform that Britannia was built to provide. For a broader analysis of how this structure fits within global financial markets, see Global Influence.

Media and Philanthropic Holdings

Outside banking, Herrera Velutini owns Diario Las Américas through Intermedia Limited, a Spanish-language daily newspaper published in Miami since 1953 and one of the longest-running Spanish-language publications in the United States. He holds no editorial role at the paper.

He also founded The Lazarus Foundation, an animal rescue organization in London, and The Britannia Foundation, which administers two programs: a scholarship and internship scheme for university students, and a seed-capital initiative supporting early-career professionals in developing business ventures.

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