Banque Internationale à Luxembourg
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Banque Internationale à Luxembourg S.A. (BIL, "International Bank in Luxembourg": Luxembourgish: ''International Bank zu Lëtzebuerg'') is the oldest private bank in Luxembourg. It offers commercial and corporate banking services, and was the country's third-largest employer by 2011, with 3,640 employees. Since 2018, it has been majority-owned by China-headquartered Legend Holdings. The bank has offices in Luxembourg, Switzerland and China. BIL has been designated in 2018 as a Significant Institution under the criteria of
European Banking Supervision European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is re ...
, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the
European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...
.


History

The bank was founded on 8 March 1856, with involvement of leading financiers Gustav Mevissen, Abraham Oppenheim, and the Pereire brothers. Its initial shareholders included the banking houses Emile Erlanger & Co. (40 percent), Sal. Oppenheim (16 percent), and A. Schaaffhausen'scher Bankverein (16 percent). Its first counter opened on 31 July 1856, the first in Luxembourg and a fortnight before the opening of the rival state-owned Banque et Caisse d'Épargne de l'État. Deposits reached a million francs in 1869 and 100 million in 1916. Like other banks in the
German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...
, BIL issued
banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...
s in multiple currencies including the
Belgian franc The Belgian franc was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002 when the euro was introduced. It was subdivided into 100 subunits, each known as a in Dutch, or in French and German. History The ''gulden'' (guilder) of 20 ''st ...
,
Dutch guilder The guilder (, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. The Dutch name was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning 'golden', and reflects the fact that, when first introduced in 1434, its ...
, Prussian thaler, and Rhineland thaler. In 1914, the BIL's notes became
legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that Standard of deferred payment, courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment in court for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything ...
in Luxembourg. After
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Belgium's Banque de Bruxelles became a significant shareholder together with Paris-based
Banque de l'Union Parisienne The Banque de l'Union Parisienne (, BUP) was a French investment bank, created in 1904 and merged into Crédit du Nord in 1973. History Société Française et Belge de Banque et d'Escompte From its inception, the Société Générale de Belgiq ...
, joined in 1926 by Germany's
Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...
. was CEO of the bank from 1973 to 1989. Starting in 1976, BIL acquired the Luxembourg subsidiary of Belgium's Banque Lambert, initially founded in 1961 as , and fully absorbed it in 1979. In 1982, it opened a subsidiary in Singapore. In 1983, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and Pargesa Holding, both controlled by Belgian financier Albert Frère, in turn acquired minority stakes in the equity of BIL. In 1991, Crédit Communal de Belgique acquired 25 percent of the capital of BIL, and in 1992 raised its stake to 51 percent. By the mid-1990s, BIL was the largest bank in Luxembourg, with 46 branches in the country. In 1998, BIL acquired the Banque Industrielle et Immobilière Privée (BIMP). Crédit Communal de Belgique, which had become Dexia in 1996, acquired full ownership of BIL in 1999. In the 2000, the Dexia brand replaced the former BIL identity. In 1997, BIL opened new branches in
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
,
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
and the
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to "satisfy a new demand ..in cross-cultural transactions". In 2011, was appointed CEO of Dexia BIL. In 2012 Dexia sold a 90 percent stake in BIL for €730 million to Precision Capital, which also owned KBL European Private Bankers, while the Luxembourg government retained a 10 percent stake. In 2014, Hugues Delcourt was appointed CEO of BIL. In 2015, the BIL closed its Singapore subsidiary. In 2017, the Chinese investment company Legend Holdings announced it was acquiring Precision Capital's 90% stake in the bank for €1.484 billion. In July 2018, the acquisition, notified through the Luxembourg regulator (CSSF), was approved by the
European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...
. In 2020, the bank reported a decrease of 10% of its annual results.
Luc Frieden Luc Frieden (; born 16 September 1963) is a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer serving as List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg since November 2023. A member of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), he held nu ...
was chairman of BIL from 2016 to 2023.


Controversy

In August 2020, Luxembourg's
Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier The (CSSF) is the main financial regulatory authority in Luxembourg. Since 2014, it has been the country's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision. The CSSF is also responsible for the supervision of experts in the f ...
imposed a large fine of 4.6 million euro on BIL, following inspection of the bank's AMLCFT systems in 2017 and 2018. In 2024, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency found that BIL played a "central role" in helping Jahangir Hajiyev, former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, to move embezzled funds.


See also

* List of banks in Luxembourg * Banque et Caisse d'Épargne de l'État


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banque Internationale A Luxembourg Banks of Luxembourg 1856 establishments in Luxembourg Banks established in 1856 Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank