The Bank was established in January 1, 1994 under the name “Housing Bank of Eritrea Share Company” with an initial capital of Nakfa 5,000,000 and 13 employees. Its mission was to help alleviate the acute housing shortages of the country by providing mortgage loans to individual customers, as well as financing the fast development of housing complexes in the country. This mission led the Bank to finance the development of three multimillion large-scale housing projects sponsored by the government. This consists of more than 2100 residential units together with a number of offices, social and commercial centers. The three projects include 1 ) the Sembel Housing Complex, 2) the Mai Temenai Low cost Housing Development and 3) the Massawa Housing Project, which the Bank has partially financed, were completed in 1997, 1998, 2000 respectively. Currently Asmara Housing Project is under progress.The year 1996 was very important for the Bank. It was in that year that the Bank decided to expand its services by transforming itself from a strictly mortgage bank into a universal full-service giving Bank, which included all areas of commercial banking.

Thus, it adopted its present name “Housing and Commerce Bank of Eritrea (HCBE)” to reflect the change and mission of the Bank. At present HCBE has extended its coverage and has three Branches in Asmara, namely: Head Office, Wushti Ketema Branch and Sembel Branch . The other branches outside Asmara are:Massawa Branch, Assab Branch, Tessenei Branch, Ghindae Branch, Keren Branch, Barentu Branch, Mendefera Branch,Nakfa Branch and Dubarwa Branch.

Nowadays, the Bank has significantly expanded its banking activities and manpower strength has also changed both quantitatively and qualitatively. As of 2023 the manpower strength of the Bank has reached 370 in number out of which 150 (40%) are males and 220(60%) females. With a capital of Nakfa 1.6 Bilion.