[3] The bank was founded on 8 March 1856,[4] with involvement of leading financiers Gustav Mevissen, Abraham Oppenheim,[5]: 38  and the Pereire brothers.

[9] In 1983, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and Pargesa Holding, both controlled by Belgian financier Albert Frère, in turn acquired minority stakes in the equity of BIL.

[13] In 1997, BIL opened new branches in Dublin, Singapore and the Cayman Islands to "satisfy a new demand [...] in cross-cultural transactions".

[9] In 2017, the Chinese investment company Legend Holdings announced it was acquiring Precision Capital's 90% stake in the bank for €1.484 billion.

[23] In August 2020, Luxembourg's Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier imposed a large fine of 4.6 million euro on BIL, following inspection of the bank's AMLCFT systems in 2017 and 2018.

[24] In 2024, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency found that BIL played a "central role" in helping Jahangir Hajiyev, former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, to move embezzled funds.