 At the beginning, CBA was owned by a consortium of financial institutions known as "Société Financière pour les Pays d'Outre-Mer" (SFOM), based in Switzerland.Original members of the consortium included Banque Nationale de Paris, Bank Bruxelles Lambert, Commerzbank, and Bank of America.In 1980, Bank of America acquired 84% shareholding, effectively buying out all the other SFOM partners.