Indian Overseas Bank
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Indian Overseas Bank (established 1937) is a major bank based in Chennai (Madras), with more than 1,400 domestic branches and six branches overseas.
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%.
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. (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. The Baharat Overseas Bank is the only private bank that the Reserve Bank of India has permitted to have a branch outside India. The ownership was: Indian Overseas Bank (30%), Bank of Rajasthan (16%), Vysya Bank (14.66%), Federal Bank (19.67%), Karur Vysya Bank (10%), South Indian Bank (10%) and Karnataka Bank (8.67%). Bharat Overseas serves the Indian ethnic community in Thailand.
- 1977: IOB opened a branch in Seoul.
- 1991: Bank of Commerce (BCB), a Malaysian bank, acquired United Asian Bank (UAB). In 1999 BCB merged with Bank Bumiputra Malaysia to form Bumiputra-Commerce Bank Berhad.
External links
- Indian Overseas Bank (http://www.iob.com/)Template:India-corp-stub