The article examines the efforts of the State Bank of the Russian Empire to expand its branch network in the Crimea in the second half of the ninteenth - early twentieth centuries. The first activities of the State Bank on the peninsula were carried out in Sevastopol as one of the most promising port cities in the post-reform years. A branch was opened there in 1875. This was followed by the establishment of bank branches in Simferopol, Feodosia and Yalta. The author analyzes the bank’s recruitment policy with the focus on the history of the bank officials entering the service in the Sevastopol branch. Particular attention is paid to the difficulties that accompanied the process of opening bank branches. In the process of expanding the banking network, spirit of rivalry arose, which prevented the management of the country’s main credit institution from objectively assessing the need to create a particular branch. Various cities of the Crimea expressed the wish to open a branch of the State Bank. As for the ef