The Banque du Congo Belge (BCB, ; ) was a Belgian colonial bank that mainly operated in the Belgian Congo from 1909 to 1960. Following Congolese independence, it kept operating as the Banque du Congo from 1960 to 1971, the Banque Commerciale Zaïroise from 1971 to 1997, and the Banque Commerciale Du Congo (BCDC) from 1997 to 2020, when it was acquired by Kenya-based Equity Group Holdings and became part of Equity Banque Commerciale du Congo.
The BCB held a monopoly on currency issuance in the Belgian Congo from 1911 to 1952, and in Ruanda-Urundi from 1916 to 1952, effectively acting as the central bank in these territories. It was succeeded in that role in 1952 by the newly established Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi.
Background
From 1886 to 1908, King Leopold II of the Belgians ruled the Congo Free State as his private domain. On July 27, 1887, he issued a Royal decree that established the Belgian franc as the money of account for the Congo Free State, and for Ruanda-Urundi. In 1890, the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty put Ruanda-Urundi within the German Empire's sphere of influence in Africa. Consequently, the German East African rupie became the official currency in Ruanda-Urundi though the Franc continued to circulate there.
In 1908, Belgium assumed direct responsibility for the Congo, taking it from Leopold; as a result, the Belgian Congo became a member of the Latin Monetary Union.
Colonial bank
The Banque du Congo Belge was founded on at the initiative of Albert Thys and the Banque d'Outremer he led, by a number of institutions including the Compagnie du Congo pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (CCCI), the Banque de Bruxelles, Bunge, and several private banking house including the Banque Lambert. After a few weeks and at the request of the Belgian authorities, the capital of the new bank was further opened to established Belgian financial institutions that included the Société Générale de Belgique (SGB), Crédit Général Liégeois, Crédit Général de Belgique, Banque Internationale de Bruxelles, the Balser banking house, and the Société Commerciale et Financière Africaine (Comfina). As a result, the main shareholders of the BCB in 1909 were the CCCI, the Banque d'Outremer, the SGB, the Comfina, Édouard Empain, the Banque de Bruxelles, De Nederlandsche Bank, and banker Franz Philippson.
As such, the BCB was initially able to act as the agent in the Congo for all the major Belgian banks rather than as a subsidiary or affiliate of only one of them. Its Brussels office was established in the office complex of the CCCI and in the same urban block as the Banque d'Outremer. In June 1909, it opened its first Congolese branch in Matadi, followed by Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) four months later and Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in 1910.
On , the Colonial government awarded the Bank a 25-year monopoly on the right of note issuance for the Colony and appointed it as fiscal agent for the colonial government. The granting of issuance privilege triggered a change in the governance of the BCB, which remained a Belgian joint-stock company but granted the Belgian government oversight rights; until 1937, the chairman of the BCB's board was a senior executive of the National Bank of Belgium. On , the same day of the enactment of the BCB's new statute, it created a local affiliate, the , which took over its commercial activities that it could no longer itself carry out under the terms of the issuance charter. The BCB soon opened further branches in Boma and Stanleyville (now Kisangani), and issued its first banknotes in 1912. It was still modest in size, however, with a total 25 employees in 1911. It kept outsourcing the printing of banknotes to the National Bank of Belgium until May 1940.
With the German occupation of Belgium during World War I, the BCB was run from a temporary branch created for that purpose in London. It created 18 new branches during the war period, in Bandundu, Basankusu, Basoko, Buta, Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka), Inongo, Kabinda, Kasongo, Kilo-Moto, Kongolo, Libenge, Lisala, Luebo, Lusamba, Niangara, Ponthierville (now Ubundu), Rutshuru, and Sandoa. In the occupied German colonies of Eats Africa, it also opened offices in Kigoma and Dar es Salaam.
Following Germany's defeat in the First World War, Belgium assumed a League of Nations mandate over Ruanda-Urundi. Belgium then included them in the Congo Franc Zone, and the BCB opened branches in Usumbura and Kigali. The Convention of 10 October 1927 updated the BCB's statute, revisited the question of note issuance and extended the BCB's monopoly until 1 July 1952; a further update of the statute took place in 1935.