The bank was founded as
Credito Industriale Sardo,
ente di diritto pubblico con personalità giuridica propria in 1953 as one of the 19 Mediocredito of Italy, as well as one of the three Istituti per il Finanziamento a Medio Terminealle Medie e Piccole Industrie nell'Italia Meridionale e Insulare (Istituti Meridionale), which were funded by
Cassa per il Mezzogiorno. The bank provided medium term loans to small and medium industries from the island. The bank renamed into
Banca CIS in the 1990s but remained a regional bank focussed on Sardinia. In 2000
Mediocredito Lombardo, a subsidiary of Banca Intesa, acquired an additional 53.23% stake of Banca CIS from the , making Mediocredito Lombardo owned 55.37% stake. This led to an end of partial state ownership of the bank which the Treasury Ministry had held since 1971. The merger was formally announced and published within the Italian
Gazzetta Ufficiale. At the same time the core business (medium term lending to enterprises) was transferred to Mediocredito Italiano (ex-Mediocredito Lombardo). However, Banca di Credito Sardo was absorbed into Intesa Sanpaolo in 2014. ==See also==