Multinational banking in Egypt: A case-study of the Ionian Bank, 1907–1939

Figures & data

Table 1. Major banks and mortgage companies operating in Egypt before 1952

Foundation year in Egypt	Bank	Ownership	Activities
1856	Bank of Egypt	British	Commercial
1864	Anglo-Egyptian Bank (later Barclays DCO, 1925)	British	Foreign trade
1867	Imperial Ottoman Bank	Anglo-French	Agricultural
1874	Crédit Lyonnais	French	Commercial
1880	Crédit Foncier Egyptien	French	Land mortgage
1887	Cassa di Sconto e di Risparmio (later Banco Italo-Egiziano)	Italian	Commercial
1896	Banque d’Athenes	Greek	Commercial
1898	National Bank of Egypt (Jones, 109)	British	Commercial and quasi central bank
1902	Agricultural Bank of Egypt	British	Agricultural
1904	Banque d’Orient	Greek	Commercial
1905	Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris	French	Commercial
1906	Deutsche Orient Bank (later Dresdner Bank)	German	Commercial
1907	Ionian Bank	British	Commercial
1912	Banque Belge pour l’Etranger (later Banque Belge et Internationale en Égypte)	Belgian	Commercial
1920	Banque Misr	Egyptian	Universal
1922	Banco di Roma (later Banco Italo-Egiziano)	Italian	Commercial
1924	Banca Commerciale Italiana per l’Egitto	Italian	Commercial
1931	Credit Agricole d’Egypte	Egyptian & Foreign	Agricultural

Source: compiled from National Bank of Egypt (1948).

Figure 1. Volume and value of Egyptian cotton export 1859–1913.

Figure 2. Ionian Bank operation

Figure 3. Ionian Bank’s profits in Egypt* and average cotton prices**.

Sources: Bank’s profits: IB, 2/6 & IB, 2/7 and IB, 3/24; cotton prices: National Bank of Egypt (1948). *Profits are in Sterling Pound and before interest paid on head office loans. 1907–1917: mid‐January financial year‐end (1917 ends in mid‐January 1918); 1918–1921: December year‐end; 1922–1935: August year-end; 1936 – Onwards: December year-end. **Cotton price is for one cantar, which is equivalent to 100 ib (pounds).

Table 2. Profitability of the Ionian Bank in Egypt on capital supplied by the Head Office (before interest and reserves)

Year	% earned on HO Capital
1907	1.18%
1908	4.41%
1909	9.83%
1910	10.34%
1911	6.85%
1912	4.46%
1913	3.54%
1914	3.51%
1915	7.14%
1916	11.63%
1917	13.16%
1918	13.29%
1919	17.25%
1920	10.18%
1921	12.82%
1922	3.77%
1923	5.07%
1924	9.80%
1925	10.20%
1926	−2.17%
1927	7.09%
1928	8.55%
1929	10.90%

Source: IB, 6/90; IB, 24/7/1; IB, 2/4; IB, 5/86; IB, 6/3; IB, 24/1/25.

Figure 4. Ionian Bank’s net profits in £: Egyptian branch & entire bank.

Source: for the entire bank: Report of Proceedings of the Annual General Meeting, IB, 2/2, IB, 2/4; for Egypt: author’s calculations based on the following files: IB, 5/86; IB, 6/3; IB, 6/90; IB, 24/1/25; IB, 24/7/1.

Figure 5. Cotton arrivals at the Alexandria cotton exchange by bank, 1923–1939 (thousands of bales).

Source: Berbenni (2023, p. 726).

Note: ‘Italian banks’ equates to Cassa di Sconto e di Risparmio and Itelegi combined.

National Bank of Egypt. (1948). National Bank of Egypt, 1898-1948. Printing Press.

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Berbenni, E. (2023). The pitfalls of multinational banking: The case of Italian banks in Egypt before WWII. Business History, 65(4), 719–739. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2021.1918675

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