Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance (Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет экономики и финансов) was established in 1930 as "Leningrad Institute of Finance and Economics" (Ленинградский финансово-экономический институт; hence the colloquial name Финэк (Finec)). The campus of the University occupies the buildings of the former Assignation Bank, which were designed by the famous Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi. Leningrad Institute of Finance and Economics (LFEI) was created on the basis of the restructured economic faculty of Saint Petersburg Politechnical Institute on the 3 of June 1930. First students were admitted to the Institute in September 1930. LFEI was enlarged several times, by merging first with the Moscow Institute of Finance and Economics in 1934, then in 1940 with Higher Institute of Finance and Economics (Leningrad) and Financial Academy (Leningrad). During the World War II the Institute was evacuated first to Essentuki and then to Tashkent. Finec renewed its operations in Leningrad on the 1 of September 1944. In 1954 LFEI was merged with Leningrad Planning Institute.