Société Générale de Belgique was the world's first universal bank. It pioneered another innovation: investing in non-listed equity. We use hand-collected data to show that the bank earned significant positive risk-adjusted returns from 1850 to 1934. This offset its flat return on the listed equity portfolio and underperforming bond portfolio. Other Belgian universal banks followed this strategy. As such, we argue that this innovation laid the groundwork for other financial institutions to invest in listed and non-listed assets.

中文翻译：

---

创新银行：上市和非上市股权投资，来自比利时兴业银行的证据，1850-1934 年


比利时兴业银行是世界上第一家全能银行。它开创了另一项创新：投资非上市股权。我们使用手工收集的数据显示，从 1850 年到 1934 年，该银行获得了显着的正风险调整回报。这抵消了其上市股票投资组合和表现不佳的债券投资组合的平坦回报。其他比利时全能银行也遵循了这一策略。因此，我们认为这一创新为其他金融机构投资上市和非上市资产奠定了基础。