TIMELINE
1969: Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) representative office opened in Sydney.
1989: Istituto Bancario San Paolo (IBSP) representative office opened in Sydney.
1998: IBSP representative office in Sydney closed.

In 1969 Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) opened a representative office in Sydney; its job was to manage relations with correspondent banks vis-à-vis Italian exports and remittances by the numerous Italians who began emigrating to Australia in the late nineteenth century and continued to flood into the country after World War II. Against the backdrop of the legal constraints and limitations imposed on foreign banks by the Australian government from the 1920s through the 1980s, BCI's representative office also supported activities by European multinationals in the country. For example, in 1972 it led a pool of banks that launched the first bond issue of Swiss Aluminium Australia Ltd. on the European market. The office was closed by Banca Intesa in 2003.
In 1989 Istituto Bancario San Paolo, too, set up a Sydney-based representative office which reported to the Singapore branch.