In 1905, the National Bank of Egypt helped establish Ethiopia's first ever bank, “The Bank of Abyssinia” which operated as an affiliate of the NBE, it received a 50-year monopoly and was the Ethiopian government’s fiscal agent as well as the sole issuer of notes and was responsible for collecting deposits and granting loans as well as trading in gold and silver, stockpiling staple commodities and investments. In a sense, it operated as both a central and a commercial bank until 1930 when it was handed over to the Ethiopian government after Haile Selassie's ascension to the throne who could not accept that the country's issuing bank was foreign-owned. A new government-controlled bank, the Bank of Ethiopia, was installed in 1931 and kept management and almost all staff, premises and clients of the old bank until the Italian invasion in 1936 when it was liquidated.