TIMELINE
1950: Banco di Napoli (BN) representative office opened in Brussels.
1962: Istituto Mobiliare Italiano (IMI) representative office opened in Brussels.
1963: Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (CARIPLO) representative office opened in Brussels.
1973: Entry of Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) into European Banks' International Company SA (EBIC).
1980: BCI representative office opened in Brussels.
1984: Istituto Bancario San Paolo (IBSP) representative office opened in Brussels.
1991: Banco Lariano representative office opened in Brussels.
1994: Banco Ambrosiano Veneto representative office opened in Brussels.

Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) and Belgium first began interacting in the 1920s, thanks to the close ties between BCI's managing director Joseph Toeplitz and the Belgian bankers at Banque de Brussels, most notably William Thys and Daniel Heineman. Together they worked to finance Italian electricity and tram companies active in Belgium.
In the aftermath of World War II, the role of Brussels became increasingly central as Western Europe began the process of rebuilding and unifying, and made a transition from bilateral agreements to full currency convertibility, a process that culminated in 1950 with the foundation of the European Payments Union (EPU).
In that same year Banco di Napoli (BN) opened a representative office in Brussels, given the growing significance of the Belgian market, which continued to expand after the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC).
Against the backdrop of the rising import of the financial operations undertaken by EEC bodies, Brussels-launched initiatives, and Italian interest in gaining access to Community resources, Italian banks decided to open representative offices there. In charge of advising and assisting companies seeking to take advantage of the support and funding offered by an array of EEC agencies, these offices also gave the banks a foothold in the country for their own institutional activities.
BCI also joined the Belgium-based European Banks' International Company SA (EBIC), made up of several large European banks whose purpose was to provide medium- to long-term financing to major industrial firms and take part in Eurocurrency loan consortia, alongside other international activities and joint ventures.

ASI-BCI, Letter-Books of Joseph Toeplitz