TIMELINE
1913: Banco di Napoli (BN) branch opened in Tripoli.
1969: BN Tripoli branch nationalized.

In 1911, at a time when the Kingdom of Italy had been allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary for nearly three decades thanks to the Triple Alliance of 1882, its leaders - following in the footsteps of France in Tunisia and Great Britain in Egypt - decided that it was the right time to pursue its ambition of establishing a colony in North Africa, in part due to strong economic conditions at home and the consequent greater availability of economic resources.
After launching the Italo-Turkish War (September 1911 - October 1912), Italy captured the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (modern Libya).
In the light of these decisions, and mirroring the political spirit of the times, on 31 July 1912 Banco di Napoli (BN) decided to set up an agency in the region, following the suggestion of the Treasury Minister and with authorization from the government itself (Regio Decreto No. 1367 of 10 December 1911, followed by Law No. 511 of 23 May 1912). Prior to BN, Banco di Roma (in 1907), Banco di Sicilia and Banca d'Italia had also entered Libya (Tripoli). After conducting an assessment of the area, in July BN's Board of Directors resolved to open a branch in Tripoli; it was inaugurated on 30 November 1930.
In 1928 BN also helped set up a consortium to finance Cassa di Risparmio della Tripolitania, which - led by Banca d'Italia - was tasked with issuing bonds for agricultural and land credit operations.
In 1946 the British authorities announced that they would begin to oversee the branch themselves, yet stopped short of seizing it. Operations at the branch resumed fully in 1952 and would continue until 13 November 1969, when the bank was nationalized by the Libyan government, which transformed it into a company called Società per Azioni Libica.