Back Banque internationale pour l'Afrique occidentale French Benki ya Kimataifa kwa Afrika ya Magharibi (BIAO) Swahili
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale (BAO, lit. 'Bank of Western Africa'), known from 1853 to 1901 as Banque du Sénégal and from 1965 to 1990 as the Banque Internationale pour l'Afrique Occidentale (BIAO), was a bank headquartered in Dakar. During most of its history it was the main or only commercial bank and bank of issue in French Senegal and French West Africa.
Following the independence of most of France’s sub-Saharan African colonies in 1960, the bank remained a major financial institution and was present in 17 African countries by the late 1980s, when it experienced financial turmoil and was eventually dismantled in a restructuring led by the Banque Nationale de Paris.