Banque pour le Commerce et l'Industrie - Mer Rouge - (BCIMR) - is the largest bank in Djibouti with a market share of about 45% and the largest bank in the Horn of Africa. It is a 51%-owned subsidiary of the French bank La Bred, itself part of the Groupe Banque Populaire. (The Government of Djibouti owns 33% of BCIMR, and a Yemeni bank owns the remaining 16%.) BCIMR has a branch in Hargeisa in Somaliland.
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BNCI Océan Indien opened a branch in Djibouti in 1954. In 1977, when Djibouti achieved independence from France, BNP converted the branch into a subsidiary. (In 1943, BNCI, an ancestor of BNP Paribas, had taken over Crédit Foncier de Madagascar et de la Réunion, which it renamed BNCI Océan Indien in 1954.)
In July 2007, BNP Paribas sold BCIMR to the French banking group Banques Populaires.[1]
In February 2009, BCIMR opened a branch in Hargeisa, becoming the first bank there since the failure in 1990 of the Commercial and Savings Bank of Somalia.