Bank of Madura was established in 1943 by Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar. It acquired Chettinad Mercantile Bank (est. 1933) and Illanji Bank (est. 1904) in the 1960s. Bank of Madura was a Chettiar bank with a large customer base of 2 million plus customers and a network of more than 280 branches and 40+ ATMs centres spread across about 100 cities in India. The bank merged with ICICI Bank Limited, under Section 44A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The Reserve Bank of India approved the merger effective March 10, 2001.