The bank opened branches in New York and Curaçao in 1977 and 1979 respectively, and two years later founded a subsidiary, Banco de Venezuela International, to offer a better service outside the country.

On 31 July of the same year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated: "I'm interested in the purchase (by the government) and we going to nationalize it".

[8] However by March 2009 negotiations with Grupo Santander had still not been completed, and Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said it was possible the takeover could be abandoned.

[9] In June 2008 talks began with Banco Occidental de Diseño (BOD) to absorb Grupo Santander's participation in Venezuela, creating the first bank in that country,[10] owever, the Venezuelan government prevented the acquisition and on 31 July of that year, President Hugo Chávez announced on national broadcaster that the bank would be nationalized.

[16] Morales' departure was a few days after the bank's digital service crashed, leaving users without access to their accounts for more than 100 hours.

[17] On 10 June 2022, the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, announced the decision of the National Executive on the public offer of between 5 and 10% of the shares of the Bank of Venezuela, the same action announced on month of May of the same year by the president of the republic, Nicolás Maduro, with the state companies CANTV and Movilnet.