Punjab National Bank

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is the second largest public sector bank in India with about 4500 branches and offices throughout the country.

History

• 1895: PNB established in Lahore.
• 1904: PNB established branches in Karachi and Peshawar.
• 1939: PNB acquired Bhagwandas Bank.
• 1947: Partition of India and Pakistan at Independence. PNB may have lost its premises in Lahore, but continued to operate in Pakistan.
• 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).
• 1969: The Government of India (GOI) nationalized PNB and 13 other top banks.
• 1960s: PNB amalgamated Indo Commercial Bank (est. 1933).
• 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. However, PNB acquired Hindustan Commercial Bank in a rescue.
• 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. Rao Bahadur T.M. Appu Nedungadi, author of Kundalatha, the first novel in Malayalam, had established the bank in 1899. It was incorporated in 1913, and in 1965 had acquired selected assets and deposits of the Coimbatore National Bank.