Bank of Calcutta

The Bank of Calcutta (a precursor to the present State Bank of India) was founded on 2 June 1806, mainly to fund General Wellesley's wars against Tipu Sultan and the Marathas. It was the first bank of India and was renamed Bank of Bengal on 2 January 1809.

A bill of exchange processed by Bank of Bengal, 1886.

Share of the Bank of Bengal, issued 13 May 1876

The bank opened branches at Rangoon (1861), Patna (1862), Mirzapur (1862), and Benares (1862). When it became known that the bank intended to open a branch at Dacca, negotiations began that resulted in Bank of Bengal in 1862 amalgamating Dacca Bank (est. 1846).[1] A branch at Cawnpore followed.

Among the bank's renowned customers were, scholar and politician Dadabhai Naoroji, scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, India’s first President Rajendra Prasad, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and educationist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.[2]

The bank was risk averse and would not lend for more than three months, leading to local businessmen, both British and Indian launching private banks which resulted in more bank failures. The most storied bank failure was Union Bank Limited (1829-1848) founded by Dwarakanath Tagore in partnership with British companies.[3]

The Bank of Calcutta, and the two other Presidency banks — the Bank of Bombay and the Bank of Madras — amalgamated on 27 January 1921 and the reorganized banking entity assumed the name Imperial Bank of India. The Reserve Bank of India, which is the central banking organization of India, in the year 1955, acquired a controlling interest in the Imperial Bank of India and the Imperial Bank of India was renamed on 30 April 1955 as the State Bank of India.