In 1934, BNCI opened a regional administration centre in Bordeaux, and later created seven other regional centers to handle routine branch teller tasks. Starting in 1937 it started expanding by buying a number of struggling local and regional banks. These included the Banque Adam in the north and west of France, Banque des Alpes and Banque du Dauphiné in the southeast, and Caisse de Saint-Quentin in the north, as well as the smaller Banque Roque in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Banque générale de Guyenne in Bergerac, and Banque Dastre in Saint-Gaudens.
Under German occupation, BNCI's domestic business stagnated as was the case with other major French banks, but its international development was more dynamic. Its CEO Alfred Pose relocated to French Algeria following the Battle of France, and in September 1940 acquired majority ownership of a small regional bank, the Banque de l'Union Nord-Africaine (BUNA), headquartered in Algiers at 17, boulevard Baudin. This was soon renamed Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie - Afrique (BNCI-A) and became a basis for expansion over the following two decades in French North Africa, French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, and the French West Indies. Later in 1940, Pose opened branches in Casablanca and in Saint-Louis, Senegal. In 1941 the bank further expanded in Tunisia and Guinea, as well as Madagascar and Réunion through the acquisition of the Crédit Foncier de Madagascar. It also developed a network in Syria and Lebanon during the war.
In 1945, under the impetus of Finance Minister René Pleven, the French government nationalized the Bank of France and the four major depository banks, including BNCI.
In 1947, the London branch of BNCI was transformed into a subsidiary and renamed the British & French Bank (BFB), with shares held by BNCI, S.G. Warburg and Robert Benson & Co. In 1974, the BFB would return to full ownership by its parent, by then the Banque Nationale de Paris, and was eventually renamed BNP plc in 1981.
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The bank's overseas activities evolved in the international context of decolonization. In 1954, the BNCI transformed the Crédit foncier de Madagascar into BNCI - Océan Indien. In 1961, it formed Union Bancaire pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (UBCI) by merging BNCI-A with a separate subsidiary it had created in 1955, Union financière et technique de Tunisie (UFITEC). The BFB's operations in Nigeria, which had started in 1949 with the opening of a branch in Lagos, were restructured into the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in 1961 following the country’s independence; the BFB initially held a 58% majority stake in UBA, but that decreased to 32.5% in 1973 and 25.5% in 1976 as the Nigerian government gradually took control. In the former French colonies of sub-Saharan Africa, the BNCI created national subsidiaries in 1962 under the brand name Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BICI, lit. 'International Bank for Trade and Industry'). In 1964, it restructured its Moroccan business as a subsidiary, the Banque Marocaine pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BMCI, lit. 'Moroccan Bank for Trade and Industry'), and allowed Moroccan stakeholders to enter its equity capital in compliance with the country's policy of Marocanisation. In Algeria, its successor the BNP eventually had to terminate its activity in late 1967 and sold its branch properties to the Bank of Algeria in January 1968.
In the 1950s, BNCI strengthened its position in the domestic retail banking market in France, while at the same time creating specialist services that provided financial advice to French businesspeople and entrepreneurs to help them explore new resources or markets in the developing world. For that purpose it created a specialized subsidiary in 1958, the Société pour le développement international du commerce et de l'industrie (INTERCOMI). By 1965, BNCI was the only French bank with such an international network.
On 4 May 1966, Minister of Finance Michel Debré announced the merger of BNCI with Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris (CNEP) under the new name of Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP). BNCI provided BNP with a large international network and significantly contributed to its asset base.
