Bank of Alexandria

History

• In 1857 local Greek merchants established a Bank of Alexandria to cater to the needs of the Greek merchant community. This bank was liquidated in 1877.
• 1864 The English overseas bank, Anglo-Egyptian Bank was founded.
• 1924 Anglo Egyptian Bank merged with The Colonial Bank and the National Bank of South Africa to form Barclays Bank. Barclays had inherited the ownership of The Colonial Bank when it acquired the London Provincial and South Western Bank in 1918.
• 1957 The Egyptian government founded Bank of Alexandria to take over the Egyptian operations of Barclays Bank DCO, which the Egyptian government had nationalized in 1956 after British and French troops attacked Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal during the Suez crisis.
• 1964 Bank of Alexandria acquired Banque du Nile and Import-Export Bank of Egypt.
• 2006 The Egyptian government privatized Bank of Alexandria. Sanpaolo IMI, the Italian bank which itself was acquired by Banca Intesa, agreed to pay $1.6 billion for 80% of Bank of Alexandria. This was the first privatization in Egypt of a fully government-owned bank.