Coris Bank, also known by the acronym CBI (for Coris Bank International), is a banking group in Africa with head office in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. By 2024, it had the largest branch network in Burkina Faso.[1] It has been described as one of a new cohort of multinational banking groups in Africa, together with Vista Bank.[2]
International Presence
Coris Bank was founded in January 2008 in Ouagadougou.[3] As of 2016, 70 percent of its equity was held by Coris Holdings,[4] an entity established in 2013[5] in Burkina Faso and controlled by financier Idrissa Nassa[fr].[6] By 2024, that stake had declined to 63.6 percent.[7] Coris Holdings is part of the Coris Group, a conglomerate that also has operations in telecoms, mining, and manufacturing.[6]
Coris established a subsidiary in Guinea in 2021.[8] In March 2022, it established a branch in Guinea-Bissau.[9] In December 2023, it acquired the retail banking operations of Standard Chartered in Côte d’Ivoire.[10] In January 2024, it completed the acquisition of the 67.8 percent stake held by Société Générale in its subsidiary in Chad.[11] The acquisition of Société Générale's subsidiary in Mauritania, announced at the same time in 2023, was delayed by a more complex regulatory approval process.[12] Coris Bank also has operations in Benin, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.[9]
The third largest banking group in the West African Monetary Union (UMOA, for l’Union monétaire ouest-africain) with a market share of almost 10%,[13] as of May 2025, Coris Bank international is present in eight West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA, for Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine) countries, as well as in Guinea, Chad and Cape Verde.[13]
