Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a large private bank founded in 1973, engaged in various types of illegal activities, ultimately leading to its demise. The bank was closed by judicial order in 62 countries on July 5, 1991. Although, since 1991, there has been a long list of financial scandals due to bad practices by some very well-known banks and institutions—such as the ING Direct scandal and the LIBOR scandal, among others—the case of BCCI goes far beyond bad practices as it involved a real corruption of the very essence of the banking industry. In fact, its name is associated not only with illicit practices and financial scandals (including fraud, money laundering, fund diversions, account falsification, and deceitful management) but, above all, ...