When BCEL was established, the Lao People's Democratic Republic declared its independence on December 2, 1975 and has been in business since 1975. From 1975 to 1989, BCEL played a special role as a branch of the former National Bank of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Central Bank) and was officially designated as the only institution capable of handling any international banking activities. In addition, BCEL was also assigned to manage grants and loans provided by foreign countries and international organizations to the Lao government.

Since November 1, 1989, BCEL was officially transformed into a state-owned commercial bank in various aspects in accordance with the Central Bank Law and the Commercial Bank Management Law. In particular, the bank has been transformed from a state administrative department to a corporate management department, and its performance will be evaluated on the basis of revenue growth. Extended to January 11, 2010 BCEL went public and became the first listed company on the Lao Stock Exchange. Its mature shareholder is the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which holds 70% of the shares, while minority shareholders include 5% employees, 10% business partners and 15% other shareholders.

BCEL Public conducts its business mainly under the management of BOL and MOF. The main objective is to benefit its customers and support the government's economic policies by improving, developing, modernizing and expanding its domestic and international services. At present, the BCEL public offers various banking services, including deposits, loans, letters of credit, guarantees, settlements, foreign exchange, ATM/debit cards and credit cards, mobile and online banking, etc. In addition, the BCEL public bank is currently growing globally with 20 branches, 95 service institutions, 10 exchanges and more than 100 correspondent banks worldwide.

In addition, the bank has also partnered with the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) to establish Lao Viet Bank (LVB) on June 22. In 1999, Laos-Vietnam Insurance (LVI) Company was established in 2008. Then BCEL continued to develop its business, partnering with the French BRED Bank to establish the French Laos Bank (BFL) in 2010 and BCEL-KT Securities Limited from Thailand in 2011. In 2014, BCEL partnered with Fudian Bank to establish Laozhong Bank (LCNB).