Joseph Safra (Brazilian
Jewish Banker), was born in Beirut (Lebanon)
in 1939, to a Jewish family with a long banking tradition.
Joseph Safra is the founder, along with his brothers Edmund and Moses, and current Director of the Safra Bank in Brazil;
Safra ranks 46th on Forbes list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of 15.9 billion dollar;
The magazine also considered to Joseph Safra as the richest Banker in the World;
In 1952, the Safra family immigrated to Brazil;
In 1955, the brother of Joseph (Edmond Safra) and his father (Jacob Safra) began working in Brazil by financing assets in São Paulo;
In 1956, Edmond Safra, with only twenty-four years old, founded the Bank of Foreign Trade Development in Geneva (Switzerland);
Soon, Edmond Safra decided to settle in New York, where he founded the Republic National Bank of New York (later sold to HSBC in 1999; he donated most of his money to the Edmond Safra Foundation);
He also donated large sums of money to the synagogue of the city of New York,
American University of Beirut, Yeshiva University and the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem;
On December 1999, Edmond Safra was found dead at his home in Monaco;
His widow, Lily Safra continued his philanthropic work, currently; she is the Director of the Edmond Safra Philanthropic Foundation;
Recently, part of the jewels of the family was auctioned for 38 million dollars and dedicated to philanthropic causes;
Joseph Safra founded the Safra Bank in 1955; today is the sixth largest private Bank in Brazil. Mr Safra remains President of the Safra Group. The Bank offers banking services in Europe, North and South America.