The Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (French pronunciation: [bɑ̃k nɑsjɔnal puʁ lə kɔmɛʁs e lɛ̃dystʁi]; "National Bank for Trade and Industry"; abbr.

[2] Following the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the CEM's head office in Mulhouse found itself in the German Empire, even though many of the bank's operations and shareholders were across the new border in France.

From the late 1880s under general manager Eugène Raval, it engaged in ambitious further expansion in France by buying local banks and opening new branches.

By the beginning of 1913, the CEM had 16 branches, 44 agencies and 34 part-time offices, the vast majority of which were in France, versus only three in Alsace-Lorraine and one in Zurich.

[5] It also opened a branch in London in 1928, and ranked fourth among French banks by total deposits, behind the long-established leaders Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris, Crédit Lyonnais, and Société Générale.

The BNCI was created on the 18 April 1932 to take over the viable business activities of the defunct BNC, while the latter's remaining assets were being liquidated in a process that enabled the reimbursement of the French public assistance by 1950 and of other creditors in 1962;[4] even former shareholders were eventually able to recover positive value.

[citation needed] Under German occupation, BNCI's domestic business stagnated as was the case with other major French banks, but its international development was more dynamic.

Its CEO Alfred Pose relocated to French Algeria following the Battle of France, and in September 1940 acquired majority ownership of a small regional bank, the Banque de l'Union Nord-Africaine (BUNA), headquartered in Algiers at 17, boulevard Baudin.

In 1974, the BFB would return to full ownership by its parent, by then the Banque Nationale de Paris, and was eventually renamed BNP plc in 1981.

[10] In the former French colonies of sub-Saharan Africa, the BNCI created national subsidiaries in 1962 under the brand name Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BICI, lit.

In 1964, it restructured its Moroccan business as a subsidiary, the Banque Marocaine pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BMCI, lit.

'Moroccan Bank for Trade and Industry'), and allowed Moroccan stakeholders to enter its equity capital in compliance with the country's policy of Marocanisation.

For that purpose it created a specialized subsidiary in 1958, the Société pour le développement international du commerce et de l'industrie (INTERCOMI).

It was annexed by the expanding BNCI in 1957 and was lightly remodeled by Marrast on that occasion to form part of the enlarged headquarters complex, including metalwork on the ground floor to host a foreign exchange office.