TIMELINE
1919: Banca Italiana di Credito Commerciale (Itabanca), in which Banca Commerciale Italiana held a stake, founded.
1984: Stake in Bankhaus Brüll & Kallmus, later San Paolo Bank (Austria) A.G., acquired by Istituto Bancario San Paolo.
1991: Stake in Zentralsparkasse und Kommerzialbank (Z-Bank), later merged into Bank Austria, acquired by Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (CARIPLO).
1995: Istituto Bancario San Paolo branch opened in Vienna.
2003: Banca di Trento e Bolzano representative office opened in Innsbruck.
2005: Innsbruck representative office transformed into a branch; Banca di Trento e Bolzano representative office set up in Dornbirn.

Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) was the first Italian bank to operate in Vienna. It did so through the Società Generale Commissionaria, a Milan-based company founded on 6 February 1918 in part by BCI, for which it acted as representative.
At the beginning of 1919 BCI decided to completely restructure the company, transforming it into a banking firm called Banca Italiana di Credito Commerciale, with branches in Trieste, Vienna and Prague. BCI relied on the new bank to carry out transactions in the countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, thereby avoiding the need to open direct branches or representative offices there. However, by 1933 there was little activity in the bank's offices (particularly the Austrian one), so in 1935 BCI made the decision to sell its stake in the bank.
Nearly half a century later, in 1984, Istituto Bancario San Paolo also began to operate in Austria, acquiring a stake in Bankhaus Brüll & Kallmus (in which Banco Lariano also held a stake), whose name was later changed to San Paolo Bank (Austria) A.G.
In 1991 Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (CARIPLO) followed suit, acquiring a small stake in Z-Bank, later renamed Bank Austria.
In the 1990s Istituto Bancario San Paolo strengthened its operations in Austria by setting up a branch in Vienna, the first Italian bank to do so; the branch was later transferred to Intesa Sanpaolo.
In 2003, Banca di Trento e Bolzano also entered the Austrian market, opening its first Italian representative office in the Tyrol region, in Innsbruck. The office was transformed into a branch in 2005, and closed in 2016 following the bank's merger into Intesa Sanpaolo.