This bank was founded in 1936 in Lahore. The registered office was moved to Amritsar in 1947[1], an after-effect of partition.
Dr Ganeshi Lal Aggarwal, M. R. Kohli, Mulk Raj Aggarwal, Amolak Ram Suri, Jhabar Mal Chokhani, and Rai Sahi Lala Labha Ram were the early directors of this bank. Almost the same set of people also promoted Jupiter Investment Trust[3], from the same address — Sunlight Buildings, Mall, Lahore. [2] Jupiter Investment Trust’s HO was also moved to Amritsar in 1947, and in 1956 to Delhi.
The bank later went into the control of Bangur group (Shree Cements). After the bank was nationalized, the non-banking investment entity, Calcutta-based NBI Industrial Finance company remained with the group. This company continues to be a Bangur-company.
In 1993, the bank was merged with another bank that traced its roots to Lahore — Punjab National Bank. The New Bank of India thus became the first nationalized bank to be merged with another.
The bank was founded in 1943 at Lahore by Late Rai Bahadur Lala Sohan Lal. In 1945, the Bank was acquired by the “Thapar Group”,
a business group in the country at that time. In 1947, the Bank’s Head Office/Registered Office was shifted from Lahore to Amritsar and subsequently to New Delhi in 1951. The bank was nationalized in 1980. In 2004, Global Trust Bank was merged with Oriental Bank Of Commerce.
[We are trying to get the founder’s photograph; if you have, please share]
Did you know: The in-house magazine of OBC is called Aadhar
The bank was founded in 1931 in Mangalore by Attavara Balakrishna Shetty, an ardent Gandhian, freedom fighter, and minister in the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Madras state. The bank was founded to promote banking habit, thrift and enterpreneurship among the farming community of Dakshina Kannada district. The bank was founded on a Vijaya Dashami day, and so the name. The bank later shifted its head office to Bangalore. The bank was nationalized in 1980.
On October 12, 1950, the name of Bengal Central Bank Limited (established in 1918 as Bengal Central Loan Company Limited, JC Das) was changed to United Bank of India Limited for the purpose of amalgamation and on December 18, 1950, Comilla Banking Corporation Limited (established in 1914, NC Datta), the Camilla Union Bank Limited (established in 1922, IB Dutt), the Hooghly Bank (established 1932, DN Mukherjee) stood amalgamated with the Bank. Subsequently, other banks namely, Cuttack Bank Limited, Tezpur Industrial Bank Limited, Hindusthan Mercantile Limited and Narang Bank of India Limited were merged with the Bank.
Union Bank of India was established on 11th November 1919 with its headquarters in Mumbai. It was promoted by Seth Sitaram Poddar 1 and for the first three years was under European Management. The Head Office building of the Bank in Mumbai was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the nation in the year 1921, and he said on the occasion: “We should have the ability to carry on a big bank, to manage efficiently crore of rupees in the course of our national activities. Though we have not many banks amongst us, it does not follow that we are not capable of efficiently managing crore and tens of crore of rupees.”
Logo: The logo features two interlocking U’s in red and blue, stands for the consumer and the bank. The two U’s stand for union and the integrity, security and strength, which Union Bank of India stands for. The colour blue represents commitment, while red is symbolic of the passion that exists at Union Bank of India.
Tagline: Good people to bank with
Did you know: The bank had floating counters and an ATM on board INS Vikrant
Syndicate Bank was established in 1925 in Udupi, in coastal Karnataka as Canara Industrial and Banking Syndicate Limited, with a capital of Rs.8000/- by three visionaries – Sri Upendra Ananth Pai, a businessman, Sri Vaman Kudva, an engineer and Dr.T M A Pai, a physician – who shared a strong commitment to social welfare. Their objective was primarily to extend financial assistance to the local weavers who were crippled by a crisis in the handloom industry through mobilising small savings from the community. The bank collected as low as 2 annas daily at the doorsteps of the depositors through its agents under its Pigmy Deposit Scheme started in 1928. Thanks to this, Syndicate Bank was known as “Small man’s big bank”.
The bank was renamed as the Syndicate Bank Limited in 1954; also, the head office moved to Manipal. In 1969, the bank was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
The logo has changed through the years — the dog in the logo has become more prominent, and the color palette changed to orange.
The dog in the logo is in sync with Syndicate Bank’s motto – ‘Faithful and Friendly’. The orange color indicates the Bank’s Vibrancy, competency and confidence to reach the next horizon of business; yellow indicates innovation, backing the vibrancy and quick decisions through collective work and thinking.
Way back in 1895, in Lahore, a group of visionaries and patriots — Lala Lajpat Rai, Mr. E C Jessawala, Babu Kali Prasono Roy, Lala Harkishan Lal and Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia and others — got together to create a national bank. The idea was first mooted by Rai Mool Raj of Arya Samaj who, as reported by Lala Lajpat Rai, had long cherished the idea that Indians should have a national bank of their own.
Punjab National Bank was born with an authorised total capital of Rs 2 lac and working capital of Rs 20,000.
The first Board of 7 Directors comprised of Sardar Dayal Singh Majithia, who was also the founder of Dayal Singh College and the Tribune; Lala Lalchand one of the founders of DAV College and President of its Management Society; Kali Prosanna Roy, eminent Bengali pleader who was also the Chairman of the Reception committee of the Indian National Congress at its Lahore session in 1900; Lala Harkishan Lal who became widely known as the first industrialist of Punjab; EC Jessawala, a well known Parsi merchant and partner of Jamshedji & Co. of Lahore; Lala Prabhu Dayal, a leading Rais, merchant and philanthropist of Multan; Bakshi Jaishi Ram, an eminent Civil Lawyer of Lahore; and Lala Dholan Dass, a great banker, merchant and Rais of Amritsar. Thus a Bengali, Parsi, a Sikh and a few Hindus joined hands in a purely national and cosmopolitan spirit to found this Bank which opened its doors to the public on 12th of April 1895. They went about it with a Missionary Zeal. Sh. Dayal Singh Majithia was the first Chairman, Lala Harkishan Lal, the first secretary to the Board and Shri Bulaki Ram Shastri Barrister at Lahore, was appointed Manager.
33% of its offices in west Pakistan constituted 40% of its deposits — PNB had to lose these during partition. 15 of its employees died during the partition frenzy. The registered office was shifted to Delhi and the Bank honoured all the deposit claims of the refugees even on the basis of whatever little evidence they could produce.
In 1951, the Bank took over the assets and liabilities of Bharat Bank Ltd. and became the second largest bank in the private sector. In 1962, it amalgamated the Indo-Commercial Bank with it.
Punjab National Bank was nationalized in 1969. In 1993, it acquired New Bank of India, a bank that was nationalized in 1980, the second wave of bank nationalization. Later in 2003, it acquired Kerala-based Nedungadi Bank, a private bank founded by Appu Nedungadi
Lala Lajpat Rai is regarded as the ‘Founding Father’ of the bank.
Did you know: “Stability” was this bank’s telegraphic address.
The Jallianwala Bagh Committee account was opened in the Bank in the late 1920s, which in the decade that followed, was operated by Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
This bank was founded at Dongarakeri in Mangalore as the ‘Canara Bank Hindu Permanent Fund’ in 1906, by late Shri Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, a philanthropist. The fund grew into a limited company as ‘Canara Bank Ltd.’ in 1910 and became Canara Bank in 1969 after nationalization.
The brand identity for Canara Bank is based on the idea of a bond and is a representation of the close ties between the Bank and its many stakeholders – from customers and employees to investors, institutions and society at large.
Bhai Vir Singh, Sir Sunder Singh Majitha and Sardar Tarlochan Singh aimed at uplifting the poorest of the the poor — and this lead to the formation of Punjab & Sind Bank in 1908, with its registered office situated at Hall Bazar, Amritsar, Punjab.The bank was nationalised in 1980.
This bank was founded in Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh) in 1923 started by Dr Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya, a prominent freedom fighter. The bank was nationalized in 1980.
Logo explained: The Symbol of Infinity denotes a bank that is prepared to do any thing, to go to any lengths, for the customer The blue pointer on the top represents the philosophy of a Bank that is always looking for growth and newer directions. The Key hole represents Safety and Security The Chain indicates togetherness The colours Red and Blue denote dynamism and solidity.
DOLLe, a friendly, intelligent, responsive dolphin is the bank’s mascot.
Books by Sitaramayya: Feathers and Stones, The History of the Congress(1935), and Gandhi and Gandhism