Central Bank of India (CBI) is an Indian public sector bank based in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. Despite its name, it is not the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...

of India; The Indian central bank is the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

History

The Central Bank of India was established on 21 December 1911 by Sir

Sorabji Pochkhanawala Sir Sorabji Nusserwanji Pochkhanawala (9 August 1881 – 4 July 1937)''Who's Who, 1936'', p. 2695 was an Indian Parsi banker and one of the founders of the Central Bank of India. Early life Sorabji Pochkhanawala was born in Bombay (Mumbai) ...

with Sir Pherozeshah Mehta as Chairman, and the first commercial Indian bank completely owned and managed by Indians.

Early-20th century

By 1918 Central Bank of India had established a branch in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

. A branch in nearby

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...

followed in 1925. In 1923, it acquired the Tata Industrial Bank in the wake of the failure of the

Alliance Bank of Simla The Alliance Bank of Simla was a British-run though India-registered bank that commenced operations in Simla in 1874 under the management of James Lewis Walker. The bank was established to take over the business of the United Bank of India, esta ...

. The Tata bank, established in 1917, had opened a branch in Madras in 1920 that became the Central Bank of India, Madras. Central Bank of India was instrumental in the creation of the first Indian exchange bank, the Central Exchange Bank of India, which opened in London in 1936. However,

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

Bank acquired Central Exchange Bank of India in 1938. Also before World War II, Central Bank of India established a branch in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. The branch's operations concentrated on business between

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and India, and especially money transmission via telegraphic transfer. Profits derived primarily from foreign exchange and margins. The bank also lent against land, produce, and other assets, mostly to Indian businesses.

Post-World War II

In 1963, the revolutionary government in Burma nationalized Central Bank of India's operations there, which became People's Bank No. 1. In 1969, the

Indian Government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

the bank on 19 July, together with 13 others. Nameboard_of_Central_Bank_of_India_

Central Bank of India building at Brabourne Road in Kolkata

Central Bank of India was one of the first banks in India to issue credit cards in the year 1980 in collaboration with Mastercard. On its 108th Foundation day, Central Bank of India launched its first step towards robotic banking, a robot named "MEDHA". CBI is one of twelve public sector banks in India that was recapitalised in 2009. As on 31 March 2021, the bank has a network of 4,608 branches, 3,644 ATMs, ten satellite offices and one extension counter. It has a pan-India presence covering all 28 states, Seven out of eight union territories and 574 district headquarters out of all districts in the country.

Controversies

In the 1980s the managers of the London branches of Central Bank of India,

Punjab National Bank Punjab National Bank (abbreviated as PNB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Delhi. The bank was founded in May 1894 and is the second largest government-owned bank in India, both in terms of its business volumes and its network ...

, and

Union Bank of India Union Bank of India, commonly referred to as Union Bank or UBI, is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Mumbai. It has 120+ million customers and a total business of US$106 billion. After the amalgamation with Corporation Bank and A ...

were caught up in a fraud in which they made dubious loans to the Bangladeshi jute trader Rajender Singh Sethia. The regulatory authorities in England and India forced all three Indian banks to close their London branches.

References

Cited sources

*Turnell, Sean (2009) ''Fiery Dragons: Banks, Moneylenders and Microfinnance in Burma''. (NAIS Press). {{DEFAULTSORT:Central Bank of India Public Sector Banks in India Banks established in 1911 Banks based in Mumbai Companies nationalised by the Government of India Indian companies established in 1911 Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange