Horácio Roque

Who is Horácio Roque?

Horácio da Silva Roque was a Portuguese financier and businessman, who founded the Banco Internacional do Funchal in 1988.

Born in Oleiros, Oleiros, Roque started his first business, a bar in Portuguese Angola, then a colonial possession of Portugal, when he was just 17 years old. He gradually built up his wealth from a series of business ventures throughout southern Africa. In addition to the Banco Internacional do Funchal, which is headquartered in Funchal, Madeira, Roque's assets included real estate and insurance holdings throughout Portugal, North America and South America.

Roque founded a foundation in 1991 to fund cultural, educational and other philanthropic causes.

He married twice, firstly to Maria de Fátima Henriques da Silva Moura and secondly to Paula Caetano, without issue. By first marriage he had Maria Teresa Henriques da Silva Moura Roque, born in 1971, wife of Pietro Saviotti dal Fabbro, by whom she had issue, and Cristina Henriques da Silva Moura Roque, born in 1978.

Horácio Roque died of a stroke on 19 May 2010, at the Hospital of São José, at São José, in Lisbon, Portugal. He was 66 years old.