the Banque Belge et Internationale en Egypte (BBIE, also known as Belginter). The Paris branch then became a French bank, the one in London became a British bank in 1934, and the Chinese branches became a Chinese bank in 1935. Following new Belgian banking legislation in 1935, the holding company in Belgium was liquidated and the individual banking subsidiaries, as well as stakes in industrial companies, were taken over directly by the . In 1935, the BBE opened another subsidiary in Hong Kong, which became its only operation in China during the 1950s as the operations in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai were nationalized by the new Communist government. The BBE further developed its activity in Hong Kong, which at some point was the third-largest foreign branch network in the colony behind HSBC and Standard Chartered. In 1948, the Paris-based Banque Belge pour l'Etranger (France) was acquired by the Banque de l'Union Parisienne. In 1950, the New York subsidiary of the London-based Banque Belge pour l'Etranger (Overseas) was converted into a subsidiary, as a precautionary measure against a scenario of Soviet invasion of Europe, and renamed as the Belgian American Banking Corporation, which in 1968 would be merged with U.S. affiliates of other European banks to form the European-American Banking Corporation, and in 2001 was eventually acquired by Citibank. The London-based BBE (Overseas) was renamed Banque Belge Ltd. in 1957; in 1970, it absorbed the London branch of the , another affiliate of the , and in 1988 contributed its merchant banking operations to the newly created branch of Generale Bank, while keeping private banking under the Banque Belge Ltd brand. In 1960, the BBIE in Egypt was nationalized and renamed the Bank of Port Said, and eventually absorbed in 1971 by Banque Misr. The BBE in Hong Kong has been the banker of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong and also one of the two banks in the region to provide equipment loans. In September 2003, Fortis announced that it would sell it to ICBC (Asia). The operations that were to be merged with ICBC (Asia) were again renamed "Belgian Bank" () on May 1, 2004, pending a full merger with ICBC (Asia), which required approval by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, and started using the ICBC logo. On October 10, 2005, the merger was completed successfully with all branches of Belgian Bank renamed as ICBC (Asia). Banknotes Like