Following the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, Egyptian government nationalized all the five branches in the country. The Egyptian government established Bank Al-Goumhourieh to take over the Egyptian operations of Ionian Bank and the Ottoman Bank in the wake of the Suez Canal War. In 1958, the Bank extended its network to East African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to meet the demand of its shareholders.