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Indian Bank, established in 1907, is a major Indian commercial bank headquartered in Chennai (Madras), India. It has 22,000 employees and 1,543 branches and is one of the big public sector banks of India. It has overseas branches in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Singapore, and 229 correspondent banks in 69 countries. The Government of India nationalized the bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks, on 19th July, 1969.
[edit] History
- 1907: Established on 15th August as part of the Swadeshi movement (Freedom Movement in India).[1] Though not a Chettiar bank, some of the founders were Chettiars. The key figure was V. Krishnaswamy Iyer, a lawyer in Madras, who had made a name for himself defending claimants on Arbuthnot & Co, which had failed the previous year. In its early international expansion, IB would open branches in cities with important Chettiar populations.
- 1932: Indian Bank opened a branch in Colombo.
- 1935: IB opened a branch in Jaffna.
- 1939: IB closed the Jaffna branch.
- 1940: IB opened a branch in Rangoon (Yangon).
- 1941: IB closed the Rangoon branch but opened branches in Singapore (where future branch manager KB Pisharody(1915-1998) started his career in the same year), and in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, and Penang. The rapid advance of the Japanese Army forced IB to close all its branches in Malaya and Singapore.
- 1942: IB closed the Colombo branch.
- Post-WWII: IB reopened its Malayan and Singapore branches.
- 1948: IB reopened its branch in Colombo.
- 1960s: IB acquired Mannargudi Bank (est. 1932) and Salem Bank (est. 1925).
- 1969: The Government of India nationalized 14 top banks, including Indian Bank.
- 1973: Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and United Commercial Bank established United Asian Bank Berhad in which IOB held 16.67% of the paid up capital, as a result of a new banking law in Malaysia that prohibited foreign government banks from operating in the country.
- 1978: IB became a technical adviser to P T Bank Rama in Indonesia, the result of the merger of P T Bank Masyarakat and P T Bank Ramayana.
- 1980: IB, Bank of Baroda, and Union Bank of India established IUB International Finance, a licensed deposit taker in Hong Kong. Each of the three banks took an equal share in the joint venture.
- 1987: IB acquired Bank of Tanjore (Bank of Thanjavur) in Tamil Nadu in a rescue.
- 1998: Bank of Baroda bought out its partners in IUB Intl. Fin. in Hong Kong. Apparently this was a response to regulatory changes following Hong Kong’s reversion. IUB became Bank of Baroda (Hong Kong), a restricted license bank.
- 2007: IB celebrates its centenary year.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Seshadri, R.K. 1982. A swadeshi bank from south India. Madras: Indian Bank.
[edit] External links
Chennai, India
