Banque d'Outremer

'Bank of Overseas'), initially known as the Compagnie Internationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (CICI, lit.

'International Company for Trade and Industry') was a Belgian financial institution, established in 1899 in the context of the exploitation of the Congo Free State, and eventually merged into the Société Générale de Belgique in 1928.

On 7 January 1899, on Thys's initiative, the CICI was formed in Brussels; its founding shareholders were the Société Générale de Belgique (SGB, 14.5 percent), Banque Lambert (7.4 percent), Banque de Bruxelles (4 percent), as well as groups of French investors led by the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, German investors led by Deutsche Bank, and British investors led by the Stern Brothers, Ernest Cassel, and Vincent Caillard.

Thys subsequently took over the chairmanship in 1911, while Émile Francqui, who had led the Compagnie Internationale d'Orient in China in the 1900s, became managing director.

[1]: VI Under the supervision of Francqui and Felicien Cattier, the SGB eventually absorbed the Banque d'Outremer through an all-shares merger in February 1928, further cementing its dominant position in the economy of Belgium and of its African colonies.