Mega Merger: Banks from the Coast  

The union government has come forward with another round of bank merger and discussions in this regard are taking place throughout the country. Syndicate, Canara and Corporation banks which have an emotional attachment with Kannadigas are also getting ready for merger and presently, their story of emergence is here in front of you…

Canara bank was built by collecting grains from door to door

Mangaluru is known as the “Cradle of Indian Banking” and on July 1^st 1906, Canara bank came into existence. It was established by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai who was a leading lawyer in Madras court. He created the bank out of concern to the poor people about the high interest rates being charged by moneylenders. Therefore he visited door to door and collected rice which he sold and with the gahtered money, he created Canara Hindu Permanent Fund Ltd on July 1. This institution later grew into the massive Canara Bank. Initially, it had 18 directors made of Madras High Court advocates, businessman and land owners.

The Canara Hindu Permanent Fund Ltd started with a single room office at Dongerkere in Mangaluru on a rent contract of Rs 120/month. The branch was made of secretaries, one clerk and two bill collectors. The institution was renamed as “Canara Bank Limited” in 1910. With the successful financial functioning of Canara Bank in 1915, several small banks merged with it in 1967 and 1963.

Canara Hindu Permanent Fund Institution was renamed as “Canara Bank”. Its first branch was established in Bengaluru. The bank’s deposit grew to Rs 1 crore. The General Manager’s office was relocated from Mangaluru to Bengaluru. For the first time, division managers were appointed for Mangaluru, Madras and Mumbai city branches. The bank’s administration council employed the services of Ms. Ibcon and improved its performance. It receiv3ed the permission for foreign exchange and in 1953 it opened its first international branch.

In 1969, Canaran Bank was nationalised along with other such banks. A fully fledged international branch and the 1,000^th branch was established in Mumbai and Basavakalyana in Karnataka respectively. Although the banks faced some trouble during the 1980s, it recovered and progressed.

Canara bank was the first bank among the nationalised banks to introduce completely mechanized service. A branch of the bank in Bengaluru received ISO:9002 certificate in 1995-96. In t1996-97, the first ATM was installed at its branches at various cities. In 2001-02, the first women’s branch was created. Any location service was started at 180 select branches of the bank. The bank has 38 local offices in prominent cities and has staff training institution at villages with zonal offices. Until now, the bank has sponsored 8 rural banks in rural areas.

113 years old Corporation Bank

Corporation Bank was established by Khan Bahadur Haji Abdulla Haji Khasim Sabeh on March 12^th 1906 in Udupi and the bank presently has an history of 113 years.

Presently, the bank is one of the prominent banks among nationalized banks. The bank has almost 2,600 CBS departments, 4,724 branches, 3,040 ATMs. Its head office is in Mangaluru.

The bank provides a variety of facilities including E-banking, consumer banking, corporate banking, insurance, investment banking, asset management, wealth management, credit card and others.

The bank with an income of Rs 17,494 crore has a management income of Rs 3,984 crore and assets worth Rs 2.21 lakh crore.

In remembrance of the demise of the bank’s founding president, his own house was converted into a ‘Museum of Coins’ with the opportunity for the people to visit it. The museum has on display, coins as old as those which were used during the Gandhara tradition dating as back as 400 BCE to the latest coins released by the RBI made of Lead, copper, silver, gold and other alloys and rare stamps. This centre keeps adding new postal stamps, envelopes and coins.

Syndicate Bank – Founder of pygmy scheme

Syndicate bank was established in 1925 by Dr| T M A Pai, Upendra Pai and Vamana Kudwa. It was then started with a capital of Rs 8,000 and its first branch was opened at Mukunda residence in Udupi. In 1937, a clearing house was established in Bombay. Its first name was Canara Industrial and Banking Syndicate Lid and in 1964 it was renamed as Syndicate Bank Ltd. Its head office was relocated to Manipal. Presently, it is one of the prominent commercial banks in India. On July 19 1963, the government of India nationalised the bank.

Syndicate bank is the first bank to make use of the pygmy scheme to inculcate the money saving tendency among the people. Eventually, all financial institutions implemented the scheme. The honour of sponsoring the first rural bank in the nation goes to Syndicate bank. This is the first bank started in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh on October 2^nd, 1975. Presently it is sponsoring Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank and Andhra Pragathi Grameena bank.