Banque de Tunisie

The Banque de Tunisie (Arabic: البنك التونسي, English: Bank of Tunisia) is a bank in Tunisia, the first established in the country in modern times.^[1]^: 130 It has been listed in the Bourse de Tunis since 1990.^[2]^[3]

History

Advert of the Banque de Tunisie, 1900

The Banque de Tunisie was created on 23 September 1884 by the Banque Transatlantique which converted its existing Tunis office into a fully-fledged local bank, three years after the establishment of the French protectorate of Tunisia. Its seat was a diminutive building at 3, rue Es-Sadikia (now rue Gamal Abdel Nasser), across the street from the French protectorate residence,^[4] which has since been demolished. Its founders hoped to secure the exclusive right to issue banknotes in the protectorate from the French government,^[1]^: 130 which however was eventually granted to the Banque de l'Algérie in 1904.

In 1911, the Banque de Tunisie participated alongside the Banque Transatlantique in the creation of the Banque Commerciale du Maroc, headquartered in Paris and with main office in Casablanca. In 1941, it was acquired together with Banque Transatlantique by the Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC), which took advantage of the Vichy anti-Jewish legislation. In 1948, it absorbed the Tunis branch of the Banque italo-française de crédit, and in 1951 led the liquidation of the Tunis-based Banca italiana di credito, both of which had primarily served Italian Tunisian customers.^[1]^{: 131–132}

By the time of Tunisian independence in 1956, the CIC agreed to cede most of its 70% equity stake in Banque de Tunisie to the country's government; at that time, most of the bank's staff were Jewish, as were about a third of its depositors. In 1963, the Banque de Tunisie took over the branches of Société Générale in Tunis and Sfax, in exchange for a 17.5% stake. Other European and American banks subsequently acquired minority stakes in the Banque de Tunisie.^[1]^: 132 In 1968, it acquired the former Tunisian operation of France's Compagnie Algérienne.^[5] In 1977, Tunisian shareholders regained a majority in the bank's capital. By the late 2000s, Tunisian shareholders together owned around three-quarters of the bank's equity capital, and Crédit Mutuel (which had taken over the CIC in 1998) owned 20%. At that time, the bank had the largest market capitalization of all listed Tunisian companies.^[1]^: 133 Belhassen Trabelsi, the brother of Leïla Ben Ali, wife of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was one of the bank's board members.^[6] In late 2012, Crédit Mutuel increased its stake to 33% by acquiring the shares formerly owned by the Trabelsi family.^[7]

Current headquarters complex on rue de Turquie in Tunis
Main old downtown branch on Avenue de France (Tunis) [fr]
Branch on Rue de Rome (Tunis) [fr], former Tunis office of the Compagnie Algérienne
Former branch in Sfax, erected in 1916 on a design by architect Raphaël Guy [fr]^[8]