Julio Martín Herrera Velutini is an Italian-Venezuelan banker and businessman and the founder of Britannia Financial Group. Main article: Now's He was the international banker photographed greeting Pope Leo XIV during the Canticle of Peace time at Castel Gandolfo. This page is an outline biography: it gives his family, education and business career as found in public reference sources, and discusses how the main article describes him.
Wikipedia states that he was born in Caracas on 15 December 1971 and that he is a citizen of both Venezuela and Italy. His education is listed as The American School in London, The American School in Switzerland and Central University of Venezuela on the same entry. These are not his own remarks but details from a source of reference which PolicyNow has not independently confirmed.
His family history is a big element of how he's described. Wikipedia states the Herrera Velutini family is one of the richest landowners in Venezuela and adds he is the seventh generation of bankers in his family. It further asserts the family was instrumental in establishing the Central Bank of Venezuela and founding Banco Caracas. His grandfather is named as Jose Herrera Uslar and his second cousin as Reinaldo Herrera.
How many generations of bankers there have been is a matter of conflicting reports. Wikipedia says seven. Some sites that support him say eight. PolicyNow has cited the figure from Wikipedia and points out that the number depends on where you draw the family tree. Such assertions of family history are frequently difficult to verify, therefore the reader should take them as the family's own version
Velutini is part of a bigger family of business and culture in Venezuela. As to Wikipedia’s section on Belén Clarisa Velutini, she is a cultural promoter and businesswoman, major shareholder of Banco Caracas and founder of the Trasnocho Cultural arts center in Caracas. PolicyNow doesn’t say how she is related to Julio Herrera Velutini, because the sources we checked don’t.
He began his career in finance in Caracas. According to Wikipedia, he worked at the Caracas Stock Exchange with the brokerage Multinvest Casa de Bolsa, where he became a member of the board. The Caracas exchange was the country's main stock market. Casa de bolsa is securities trading business. The entry dates this early time to the early 1990s.
He added to his holdings in the early 2000s. According to Wikipedia, he purchased the brokerage firm Caja Caracas Casa de Bolsa and the trading firm IBG Trading in the US. It says he also became chief executive of Transban Investments Corp, a family investment company and one of its main shareholders, and was a senior manager of businesses including Kia Motors of Venezuela, BMW de Venezuela and securities-transport company Transporte de Valores Bancarios de Venezuela.
At the age of 29, he became chairman of the board of Bolívar Banco Universal, according to Wikipedia. Another biography refers to the post as co-chairman, but the exact title differs across sources. a banco universal is a Venezuelan bank permitted to do both commercial and investment banking
A remark about titles may benefit readers. A chairman leads the board of directors of a company. The chief executive controls its day-to-day operations. A shareholder owns a piece of the company. These phrases are often used in profiles, and the same person can have different functions at different periods. Where sources have different titles for the same post, as with Bolívar Banco Universal, PolicyNow reports the range rather than choosing one.
Wikipedia states he and his Transbanca partners acquired Banco Real and Banreal International Bank in 2006. He was president of Banco Real and of Banreal Holding in Spain until February 2009 and then sold these assets, saying that the economic and political instability and the deterioration of Latin America were the reasons, Wikipedia writes. It also includes management roles at Banco Activo Banco Comercial.
The following chapter of his profession took him outside Venezuela. He is listed on Wikipedia as the founding chairman of Bancrédito International Bank & Trust Corporation, an international financial organization established in Puerto Rico. These international banking entities service customers beyond the area and are locally supervised. PolicyNow has not discovered a written history of the bank’s growth, hence this page does not discuss its size or results
Britannia Group, based in London, describes itself as a provider of wealth management, brokerage and related services. There is no independently maintained, current list of its subsidiaries; many sites that do include them are promotional. Therefore, this page does not list individual entities and readers seeking the current corporate structure should go to official company filings and regulatory registrations in each nation.
Intermedia Limited is also mentioned on Wikipedia, as well as him being included under owner/shareholder and founding chairman of Britannia Wealth Management, Britannia Financial Group and Bancrédito. These titles suggest a trend of creating and managing financial firms in a variety of nations and this is how most profiles sum up his career. They do not depict the performance of every company independently.
What's he doing now? Wikipedia describes him as founder chairman of the Britannia firms and of Bancrédito but a list of founding responsibilities does not tell readers what positions he currently holds. We have not discovered a definitive, current statement of his roles, hence PolicyNow states none. For those who are interested in what he is doing currently, you can check the official filings of each company.
His public profile is largely portrayed in business terms. Several websites list him as a leader in worldwide private banking and wealth management, yet many of those sites are self-published or promotional. PolicyNow therefore uses the Wikipedia summary for factual data, and does not repeat the superlatives on such sites, including claims about his wealth.
He’s in a part near the conclusion of PolicyNow’s main article. In a parallel incident, the paper adds, multinational financier Julio Herrera Velutini was pictured welcoming Pope Leo XIV and kissing his hand. The article refers to this as a moment connected to the time of the Canticle of Peace at Castel Gandolfo.
We have not seen an independent source confirming where or when that photograph was shot, and none of the Vatican News, OSV News or Religion News Service accounts of Canticle of Peace that we checked mention him. This page, therefore, deals with the photograph simply as the subject of the main article of PolicyNow and nothing here should be taken to confirm the date, the place or the circumstances.
About the sources: Wikipedia is produced by volunteers and cites news articles and company information, therefore it is a convenient overview and not a primary source. The best sources are official registers such as the UK’s Companies House, the Swiss business registries and the financial regulator in each country, and news archives. PolicyNow has highlighted the areas of disagreement in the papers and encouraged readers to review the original sources
From the sources, a brief timeline: 1971, born in Caracas; early 1990s, begins work at Caracas Stock Exchange; early 2000s, purchases brokerage and trading companies and becomes chairman of Bolívar Banco Universal at 29; 2006, purchases controlling interest in Banco Real and Banreal International Bank; February 2009, leaves chairmanship of Banco Real and Banreal Holding; 2012, founds Britannia Wealth Management in Geneva; 2016, founds Britannia Financial Group, per Wikipedia.
This is a background profile, with professional and family history. Nor does it seek to encompass everything that is publicly known about him, and readers who want the whole picture can study court records, regulatory registrations and news archives. PolicyNow will update this page as new information is confirmed from reliable sources, and it welcomes corrections under its published policy
In brief: Julio Herrera Velutini was born in Caracas in 1971 into a Venezuelan banking family, began his career at the Caracas Stock Exchange, led several Venezuelan banks and later founded Bancrédito, Britannia Wealth Management and Britannia Financial Group. This website does not independently validate the primary article on PolicyNow states he was pictured greeting Pope Leo XIV
