Punjab National Bank (PNB), was registered on May 19, 1894 under the Indian Companies Act with its office in Anarkali Bazaar Lahore. The Bank is the second largest government-owned commercial bank in India with about 4,904 branches across 764 cities. It serves over 37 million customers. The bank has been ranked 248th biggest bank in the world by Bankers Almanac, London. The bank's total assets for financial year 2007 were about US$60 billion. PNB has a banking subsidiary in the UK, as well as branches in Hong Kong and Kabul, and representative offices in Almaty, Dubai, Oslo, and Shanghai. [edit] History - 1895: PNB commenced its operations in Lahore. PNB has the distinction of being the first Indian bank to have been started solely with Indian capital that has survived to the present. (The first entirely Indian bank, the Oudh Commercial Bank, was established in 1881 in Faizabad, but failed in 1958.) PNB's founders included several leaders of the Swadeshi movement such as Dyal Singh Majithia and Lala HarKishen Lal,[1] Lala Lalchand, Shri Kali Prosanna Roy, Shri E.C. Jessawala, Shri Prabhu Dayal, Bakshi Jaishi Ram, and Lala Dholan Dass. Lala Lajpat Rai was actively associated with the management of the Bank in its early years.
- 1904: PNB established branches in Karachi and Peshawar.
- 1940: PNB absorbed Bhagwan Dass Bank, a scheduled bank located in Delhi circle.
- 1947: Partition of India and Pakistan at Independence. PNB lost its premises in Lahore, but continued to operate in Pakistan.
- 1951: PNB acquired the 39 branches of Bharat Bank (est. 1942); Bharat Bank became Bharat Nidhi Ltd.
- 1961: PNB acquired Universal Bank of India.
- 1963: The Government of Burma nationalized PNB's branch in Rangoon (Yangon).
- September 1965: After the Indo-Pak war the government of Pakistan seized all the offices in Pakistan of Indian banks, including PNB's headoffice, which may have moved to Karachi. PNB also had one or more branches in East Pakistan (Bangladesh).
- 1960s: PNB amalgamated Indo Commercial Bank (est. 1933) in a rescue.
- 1969: The Government of India (GOI) nationalized PNB and 13 other major commercial banks, on July 19, 1969.
- 1976 or 1978: PNB opened a branch in London.
- 1986 The Reserve Bank of India required PNB to transfer its London branch to State Bank of India after the branch was involved in a fraud scandal.
- 1986: PNB acquired Hindustan Commercial Bank (est. 1943) in a rescue. The acquisition added Hindustan's 142 branches to PNB's network.
- 1993: PNB acquired New Bank of India, which the GOI had nationalized in 1980.
- 1998: PNB set up a representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
- 2003: PNB took over Nedungadi Bank, the oldest private sector bank in Kerala. At the time of the merger with PNB, Nedungadi Bank's shares had zero value, with the result that its shareholders received no payment for their shares.
- PNB also opened a representative office in London.
- PNB also opened a representative office in Shanghai.
- PNB established an alliance with Everest Bank in Nepal that permits migrants to transfer funds easily between India and Everest Bank's 12 branches in Nepal.
- 2005: PNB opened a representative office in Dubai.
- 2007: PNB established PNBIL - Punjab National Bank (International) - in the UK, with two offices, one in London, and one in South Hall. Since then it has opened a third branch in Leicester, and is planning a fourth in Birmingham.
- 2008: PNB opened a branch in Hong Kong.
- 2009: PNB opened a representative office in Oslo, Norway, and a second branch in Hong Kong, this in Kowloon.
[edit] Chairmen of Punjab National Bank - 1895-1898 Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia
- 1898-1905 Rai Bahadur Lala Lal Chand
- 1905-1910 Bhagat Ishwar Dass
- 1911-1912 Rai Bahadur Lala Lal Chand
- 1912-1913 Rai Bhadur Lala Sukddyal
- 1913-1915 Bhagat Ishwar Dass
- 1917-1920 Dr. Hira Lal Bhatia
- 1920-1931 Lala Dhanpat Rai
- 1931-1937 Dr. Maharaj Krishana Kapoor
- 1938-1942 Rai Bahadur Diwan Badri Dass
- 1943-1953 Lala Yodh Raj
- 1953-1954 Shriyansh Parshad Jain
- 1954-1959 Seth Shanti Parkash Jain
- 1960-1964 Ram Nath Goenka
- 1964-1967 Kamal Nayan Bajaj
- 1968-1972 Somesh Chander Trikha
- 1972-1975 Parkash Lal Tandon
- 1975-1977 Tirath Ram Tuli
- 1977-1980 Om Parkash Gupta
- 1980-1981 Shyam Lal Chopra
- 1981-1985 Sudarshan Lal Baluja
- 1985-1990 Kundan Lal Aggarwal
- 1990-2000 Rashid Jilani
- 2000–2005 S.S. Kohli
- 2005-2007 Satwant Chand Gupta
- 2007-2009 K.C. Chakrabarthy
- 2009- K.R. Kamath
[edit] Forbes Global 2000 Ranking Punjab National Bank was ranked 1243 in the Forbes Global 2000 http://www.pnbindia.com [2]. [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/18/06f2000_The-Forbes-2000_Counrty_5.html [edit] References - Tandon, Parkash Lal (1989) Banking century: a short history of banking in India & the pioneer, Punjab National Bank. (New Delhi, India: Penguin; New York: Viking).
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