The Industrial Bank was initially established in 1947 as a state owned joint stock company with a capital of LE 1.5 million to provide specialized financing for the industrial private sector. In 1971 the Bank was merged into Bank of Alexandria and became a specialized department for Micro lending. In 1976 the Bank was re-established as The Industrial Development Bank of Egypt, an autonomous specialized financial institution focusing on providing structured finance to the newly emerging private sector industrial projects.