TIMELINE
1973: Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) representative office opened in Beirut.

Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI)'s presence in Lebanon goes back to the 1970s. Over the next twenty years the bank would go on to become the main financial institution assisting the country's banks in their relations and commercial exchanges with Italy, the most important supplier to Lebanon of a wide range of products.
BCI's representative office was opened in Beirut in 1972, just a few years before the outbreak of the civil war that would devastate the country for almost two decades. In 1982 BCI's office was hit by shrapnel and grenades, but the resultant fire was put out quickly and the office remained open even during the most difficult years of the conflict.
The decision to maintain an operational headquarters in Beirut was renewed over time, throughout the multiple bank mergers that generated Intesa Sanpaolo.