Indian Banks: The Story of New Bank of India (NBI)

New Bank of India history

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.

New Bank of India logo
New Bank of India logo
New Bank of India - MR Kohli Share Certificate
New Bank of India – MR Kohli Share Certificate
Jupiter Investment Trust
Jupiter Investment Trust
The New Bank of India 1943 ad
The New Bank of India 1943 advertisement

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.

Indian Banks: The Story of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC)

Oriental Bank of Commerce History

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]

Oriental Bank of Commerce logo
Oriental Bank of Commerce logo
Oriental Bank of Commerce Lahore 1943
Oriental Bank of Commerce Lahore 1943

Did you know: The in-house magazine of OBC is called Aadhar

Tagline: Where every individual is commited

Indian Banks: The Story of Vijaya Bank

Vijaya Bank History

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.

Attavara Balakrishna Shetty founder Vijaya Bank
Attavara Balakrishna Shetty founder Vijaya Bank
Vijaya Bank logo
Vijaya Bank logo

Tagline: A friend you can bank upon

Indian Banks: The Story of United Bank of India

United Bank of India History

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.

United Bank of India History
United Bank of India History
United Bank of India logo
United Bank of India logo

Source

Tagline: The bank that begins with “U”

Indian Banks: The Story of Union Bank of India

Union Bank of India History

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.”

Union Bank of India - Oldest Logo
Union Bank of India – Oldest Logo
union-bank-of-india old logo
Union-Bank-of-India old logo
union-bank-of-India-Logo
union-bank-of-India-Logo

Source

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

Indian Banks: The Story of Syndicate Bank

Syndicate Bank History

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.

Upendra Ananth Pai, cofounder, Syndicate Bank
Upendra Ananth Pai, cofounder, Syndicate Bank
Vaman Kudva, cofounder, Syndicate Bank
Vaman Kudva, cofounder, Syndicate Bank
Dr.T M A Pai, cofounder, Syndicate Bank
Dr.T M A Pai, cofounder, Syndicate Bank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The logo has changed through the years — the dog in the logo has become more prominent, and the color palette changed to orange.

Syndicate Bank Logo Oldest
Syndicate Bank Logo — one of the earlier logos

 

 

 

 

 

 

Syndicate Bank Logo Old
Syndicate Bank Logo Old
Syndicate Bank logo
Syndicate Bank logo

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Tagline: Faithful. Friendly.

Indian Banks: The Story of Punjab National Bank

Punjab National Bank History

Punjab National Bank logo
Punjab National Bank logo

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 Head Office at Mall Road, Lahore
Punjab National Bank Head Office at Mall Road, Lahore

Punjab National Bank was born with an authorised total capital of Rs 2 lac and working capital of Rs 20,000.

Founders of Punjab National Bank
Founders of Punjab National Bank

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.

Punjab National Bank - Cheque
Notice the old logo with elephants?

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.

Lala Lajpat Rai, founding father, Punjab National Bank
Lala Lajpat Rai, founding father, Punjab National Bank
The first office of Punjab National Bank at Ganpatrai Road, Lahore
The first office of Punjab National Bank at Ganpatrai Road, Lahore

 

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.

Tagline: The name you can bank upon

Source1 Source2 Source3 Source4

Indian Banks: The History of Canara Bank

Canara Bank History

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.

Canara Bank old logo
Canara Bank’s old logo
Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, founder, Canara Bank
Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, founder, Canara Bank

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.

Canara Bank's logo
Canara Bank’s logo

Tagline: Together we can

Indian Banks: The Story of Punjab and Sind Bank

Punjab & Sind Bank History

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.

Punjab and Sind Bank Logo
Punjab and Sind Bank Logo
Punjab & Sind Bank Hall Bazar Amritsar
Punjab & Sind Bank Hall Bazar Amritsar

 

Punjab & Sind Bank Cofounder Sardar Bhaivir Singh
Punjab & Sind Bank Cofounder Sardar Bhaivir Singh
Punjab & Sind Bank Cofounder Sardar Tarlochan Singh
Punjab & Sind Bank Cofounder Sardar Tarlochan Singh
Punjab & Sind Bank Cofounder Sunder Singh Ji Majithia
Punjab & Sind Bank Cofounder Sunder Singh Ji Majithia

Tagline: Where service is a way of life

Source

Indian Banks: The Story of Andhra Bank

Andhra Bank History

Andhra Bank logo
Logo

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.

Dr Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya - Founder Andhra Bank
Dr Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya – Founder
Andhra Bank old logo
Old logo

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.

Dolle - Andhra Bank's Mascot
Dolle – Andhra Bank’s Mascot

Books by Sitaramayya: Feathers and Stones, The History of the Congress(1935), and Gandhi and Gandhism

(Source: Bank website)

Tagline: Where India Banks