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Indian Overseas Bank (IOB; established 1937) is a major bank based in Chennai (Madras), with 1,400 domestic branches and six branches overseas. Indian Overseas Bank has an ISO certified inhouse Information Technology department, which has developed the software that 900 branches use to provide online banking to customers; the bank has a target to expand online banking to 1200 branches by the end of financial year 2007-08. IOB also has a network of about 500 ATMs all over India and IOB's International VISA Debit Card is accepted at all ATMs belonging to the Cash Tree and NFS networks. IOB offers internet Banking (E-See Banking) and is one of the banks that the Govt. of India has approved for online payment of taxes.
[edit] History
- 1937: Shri.M.Ct.M. Chidambaram Chettyar establishes the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) to encourage overseas banking and foreign exchange operations. IOB started up simultaneously at three branches, one each in Karaikudi, Madras (Chennai) and Rangoon (Yangon). It then quickly opened a branch in Penang and another in Singapore. The bank served the Nattukottai Chettiars, who were a mercantile class that at the time had spread from Chettinad in Tamil Nadu state to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Malaya, Singapore, Java, Sumatra, and Saigon. As a result, from the beginning IOB specialized in foreign exchange and overseas banking (see below).
- 1960s: The banking sector in India was consolidating by the merger of weak private sector banks with the stronger ones; IOB absorbed five banks, including Kulitali Bank (est. 1933).
- 1969: The Government of India nationalized IOB. At one point, probably before nationalization, IOB had twenty of its eighty branches located overseas. After nationalization it, like all the nationalized banks, turned inward, emphasizing the opening of branches in rural India.
- 1988-89: IOB acquired Bank of Tamil Nadu in a rescue.
- 2000: IOB engaged in an initial public offering (IPO) that brought the government's share in the bank's equity down to 75%.
[edit] International expansion
- 1937-38: As mentioned above, IOB was international from its inception with branches in Rangoon, Penang, and Singapore.
- 1941: IOB opened a branch in Malaya that presumably closed almost immediately because of the war.
- 1946: IOB opened a branch in Ceylon.
- 1947: IOB opened a branch in Bangkok and re-opened others.
- 1948: United Commercial Bank (see below) opened a branch in Malaya.
- 1949: IOB opened a branch in Bangkok.
- 1963: The Burmese government nationalized IOB’s branch in Rangoon.
- 1973: IOB, Indian Bank and United Commercial Bank established United Asian Bank Berhad in Malaysia. (Indian Bank had been operating in Malaysia since 1941 and United Commercial Bank Limited had been operating there since 1948.) The banks set up United Asian to comply with the Banking Law in Malaysia, which prohibited foreign government banks from operating in the country. Also, IOB and six Indian private banks established Bharat Overseas Bank as a Chennai-based private bank to take over IOB's Bangkok branch.
- 1977: IOB opened a branch in Seoul.
- 1979: IOB opened a Foreign Currency Banking Unit in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- 1992: Bank of Commerce (BOC), a Malaysian bank, acquired United Asian Bank (UAB).
- 1999: Bank of Commerce (BOC) merged with Bank Bumiputra Malaysia to form Bumiputra-Commerce Bank (BCB) Berhad.
- 2005: BCB integrates with CIMB which the company is own by the Datuk Seri Nazir Razak who is the youngest son of Malaysia's second (former) Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak from 1970 - 1976 and youngest brother of today's (2005) deputy prime minister Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak.
- 2007: IOB takes over Bharat Overseas Bank.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
