The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was established in 1972 under the leadership of Agha Hasan Abedi, beginning with a comparatively modest capital base and an ambition to build an international bank capable of serving markets across both the developed and developing world.
From its earliest years, BCCI pursued a strategy of international expansion. Its initial shareholders included investors from the Middle East and Gulf region, together with Bank of America, which took a significant minority interest and provided early institutional support.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, BCCI expanded across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The Bank developed particular strengths in trade finance, correspondent banking, remittances and services to businesses and communities whose international banking requirements were not always fully served by the major established banks.
Its growth was accompanied by the development of a multinational workforce and an organisational culture that placed considerable emphasis on local knowledge, personal banking relationships and the creation of links between emerging economies and the international financial system.
By the mid-1980s, BCCI had developed from a newly established bank into a substantial international banking group operating across numerous jurisdictions. This rapid expansion created the global network that became central both to BCCI's achievements and to the regulatory and organisational challenges it would later face.
BCCI’s expansion also extended to the United States, where its relationships with and interests in American banking institutions later became the subject of extensive regulatory, legal and Congressional examination. These matters were examined in detail in the 1992 US Senate report, The BCCI Affair, prepared by Senators John Kerry and Hank Brown, particularly in relation to BCCI’s alleged indirect acquisition and control of US banking interests.
