The institute was established by the French authorities after they decided to phase out the note-issuing privilege of
Banque de l'Indochine in
French Indochina. It was first envisaged at the French-Vietnamese
Dalat conference of 1946, and enabled by legislation in 1948 that was however only implemented three years later. The institute was eventually established in December 1951 and started operations on . While its seat was legally established in
Phnom Penh, the building of a proper head office there was delayed, and in practice the institute was run from
Saigon. The currency it issued, the
French Indochinese piastre, was popularly known as the "Bao Dai piastre" with reference to
Bảo Đại, by then Vietnam's Chief of State, whose portrait was featured on the institute's banknotes. The institute was ostensibly governed jointly by France,
Cambodia,
Laos and the
State of Vietnam, but it remained practically controlled by France. It opened offices in
Paris, Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1952, and in
Vientiane in 1953. But it soon found itself overrun by events, namely the end of the protectorates in Cambodia and Laos in 1953 and the
1954 Geneva Conference that ended the
First Indochina War. On , in application of a quadripartite agreement signed only three days earlier in Paris, the role of the Institut d'Émission was taken over by the
National Bank of Cambodia in the
Kingdom of Cambodia, the
National Bank of Laos in the
Kingdom of Laos, and the
National Bank of Vietnam in the
State of Vietnam, respectively issuing the
Cambodian riel,
Lao kip, and
South Vietnamese đồng. The Institute simultaneously ceased operations and was liquidated a few days later. ==Leadership==