How it started
History
Founded on 28 October 1893 by the merger of the Valparaíso Bank (1855), National Bank of Chile (1865) and Agriculturist Bank (1869). Banco de Chile has traditionally led the Chilean financial market as one of the largest banks in terms of turnover and deposits.
In 2001, the Chile conglomerate Quiñenco group bought 59.3% share of the company through the subsidiary company LQIF and took control of the bank.
In 2008, Citigroup agreed with Quiñenco to take a 32.96% stake in LQIF and merged Citigroup Chile operations with Banco de Chile.
In April 2010, Citigroup exercised its two outstanding options and increased its share in LQIF to 50%.
On December 9, 2004, Banco de Chile became the first Chilean financial institution to operate in the Asian markets, after closing a co-operation agreement with Standard Chartered Bank.
From Wikipedia’s article on Banco de Chile, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
