The Industrial Bank was initially established in 1947 as a state owned joint stock company with a capital of LE 1.5 million to provide specialized financing for the industrial private sector. In 1971 the Bank was merged into Bank of Alexandria and became a specialized department for Micro lending. In 1976 the Bank was re-established as The Industrial Development Bank of Egypt, an autonomous specialized financial institution focusing on providing structured finance to the newly emerging private sector industrial projects.

Since its re-establishment in 1976, IDBE was under-capitalized, thus impeding the Bank's capabilities in achieving its objectives of financing small and medium industrial enterprises (SMIEs), since such tasks require long term stable funding. To comply with the new Banking law and rectify the imbalance in the Bank's funding base, in 2003, the Bank’s Authorized Capital was increased from LE 500 million to LE 1 billion, and Paid-In Capital from LE 175 million to LE 500 million. Viewing the importance of the bank as a means for financially funding the needed growth within the industrial private sector, is considering future increases in the Bank's Paid-In Capital.

In November 2008 the Egyptian Workers Bank was merged into the IDBE under the name of "The Industrial Development & Workers Bank of Egypt " to create a stronger financial institution capable of providing distinctive banking services to the Egyptian industry .
Shareholders' Structure Changed to become 84.4 % for Ministry of Finance, 3.3 % for Public Sector, 12.3 % for Private Sector .

Realizing the importance of the industrial sector, especially SMIEs, as a catalyst for invigorating the national economy, the Bank has always been a fore-runner in financing SMIEs. This was complemented by extending a variety of technical, marketing and financial services.

To support the nature of the bank's lending activities, the Bank is issuing competitively priced medium term savings instruments .

In addition to its core specialized banking business, IDWBE extends the following services to its clients: projects evaluation, financial engineering, feasibility studies, dispose of assets on behalf of its clients.

To ensure the success for our customers, the bank works hand-in-hand with its clients by continuously extending technical, marketing, administrative and financial support. The bank provides an invaluable gateway for the marketing of its customers’ products . The Bank's strategically located branches within major and new industrial cities, provide IDWBE with the required reach to service its clientele at their production facilities. IDWBE's strategy is to open additional branches in areas that are considered vital for the growth of the Bank.