Banca Commerciale Italiana, founded in 1894, was once one of the largest banks in Italy. In 1999 it merged with a banking group consisting of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (aka Cariplo; est. 1823) and Banco Ambroveneto, the former Banco Ambrosiano

Banco Ambrosiano

Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...

, which had merged in 1998. On 1 January 2003, the group's name changed to Banca Intesa

Banca Intesa

Banca Intesa S.p.A. was formed in 1998 from the merger of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde and Banco Ambroveneto...

. In 2006 Banca Intesa merged with Sanpaolo IMI

Sanpaolo IMI

The Gruppo Sanpaolo IMI was one of Italy's major banking and insurance groups, based in Turin. It employed about 44,000 people and had about 7 million customers....

, based in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, to form Intesa Sanpaolo

Intesa Sanpaolo

Intesa Sanpaolo is a banking group resulting from the merger between Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI based in Turin, Italy. It has clear leadership in the Italian market and a minor but growing international presence focused on Central-Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa Intesa Sanpaolo...

.

History

BCI's predecessor was the Società Generale di Credito Mobiliare, founded in 1862. This institution became successful as a lender to the iron and steel industry. However, the Italian banking crisis of 1893-1894, led to Credito Mobiliare's failure. On October 10, 1894 Credito Mobiliare was re-established as a private joint-stock bank under the name Banca Commerciale Italiana with capital from several German and Austrian banks, including Bleichröder, Deutsche Bank, and Dresdner Bank. BCI was originally modeled along the lines of German banks, making both short- and long-term loans. The young BCI continued to specialize in loans to industry, especially to companies in shipping, textiles, and electricity.

International expansion through World War II

• 1905: BCI took a majority stake in the newly established Banque Commerciale Tunisienne.
• 1906: BCI participated in the augmentation of the capital of Banco Comerciale Italo-Brsiliano, which had been founded in 1900 as Banco Comerciale Italiano di S. Paolo.
• 1908: BCI took an important stake in Banca della Svizzera Italiana
  Banca della Svizzera Italiana
  BSI is the oldest bank in the Swiss canton of Ticino. Founded in 1873 in Lugano as the Banca della Svizzera Italiana, today BSI is an institution that specialises in asset management and related services for private and institutional clients...
  
   (BSI), which had been founded in 1873. In 1910 BCI took control of BSI.
• 1910: BCI established Banque Française et Italienne pour l'Amerique du Sud (Sudameris). Sudameris took over the activities of Banco Comerciale Italo-Brasiliano, which was in liquidation.
• 1911: BSI established a branch in London.
• 1911: BSI liquidated Banque Commerciale Tunisienne, which was merged into Société Générale de l'Afrique du Nord.
• 1918: BCI established a branch in New York, and Banca Commerciale Italiana (France), in Paris. The French subsidiary would establish branches in Marseilles and Casablanca.
• 1919: BCI acquired or created four foreign operations. In Lima
  Lima
  Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
  
  , Peru, it acquired a stake in Banco Italiano
  Banco de Crédito del Perú
  Banco de Crédito del Perú is a Peruvian bank, and the largest in the country. It is traded in the New York Stock Exchange and the Lima Stock Exchange . It is controlled by the Romero family...
  
  , which had been founded in 1889. It established Società Italiana de Credito Commerciale out of Società Generale Commissionaria, which had been founded in Italy in 1918 and which had a branch in Vienna. BCI created Banca Commerciale Italiana e Bulgara (Bulcomit) in Sofia
  Sofia
  Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
  
  , Bulgaria. Lastly, it established a branch in Istanbul.
• 1920: This was also a busy year for BCI's international expansion. It created Banca Ungaro-Italiano Bankunit) out of the merger of the Credit Instut Ungarscher Holzhändler e Ungarsche Landesbank and Agrar-Bank. It also established Banca Italiana e Romena (Romcomit) by assuming the branches in Transylvania
  Transylvania
  Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
  
   of Banca Agrara Timisana. BCI also acquired Böhmische Union-Bank, which had been founded in 1872. Lastly, Società Italiana de Credito Commerciale changed its name to Società Italiana di Credito.
• 1923: BCI established Banco Italiano - Guayaquil in Ecuador.
• 1924: BCI established Banca Commerciale Italiana per l'Egitto (Comitegit) in Alexandria
  Alexandria
  Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
  
  . A branch in Cairo would follow. In the US, BCI established Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co.
  Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co.
  Banca Commerciale Italiana established Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. of New York in 1924 and closed it in 1939.-History:...
  
   - New York.
• 1927: BCI acquired a stake in Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, founded in 1870. However, BCI reduced its stake in Böhmische Union-Bank to a minority position.
• 1928: BCI established a branch in Smyrna
  Izmir
  Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
  
  .
• 1929: BCI established Banca Commerciale Italiana e Greca (Comitellas) in Athens. In the US, BCI established Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. - Boston and Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. - Philadelphia.
• 1930: BCI acquired a stake in Hrvatska Banks in Zagreb.
• 1934: BCI sold its shares in Società Italiana di Credito.
• 1935: BCI sold its stake in Bank Handlowy.
• 1937: BCI established a representative office in Belgrade, while closing Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. - Boston.
• 1938: BCI liquidated Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. - Philadelphia, having sold the business to Liberty Title and Trust Co.
• 1939: BCI sold Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. - New York to Manufacturers Trust Co..
• 1940: BCI's branch in London was liquidated.
• 1941: BCI sold its shares in Banco Italiano - Guayaquil, which became Banco de Guayaquil. BCI's branch in New York was sequestrated and liquidated immediately after the United States declared war on Italy.
• 1942: Banco Italiano, in Lima, changed its name to Banco de Crédito del Perú
  Banco de Crédito del Perú
  Banco de Crédito del Perú is a Peruvian bank, and the largest in the country. It is traded in the New York Stock Exchange and the Lima Stock Exchange . It is controlled by the Romero family...
  
  .
• 1943: BCI closed its representative offices in Berlin and Belgrade.