Punjab National Bank - History

History

Punjab National Bank was registered on 19 May 1894 under the Indian Companies Act with its office in Anarkali Bazaar Lahore. The founding board was drawn from different parts of India professing different faiths and a varied back-ground with, however, the common objective of providing country with a truly national bank which would further the economic interest of the country. PNB's founders included several leaders of the Swadeshi movement such as Dyal Singh Majithia and Lala Harkishan Lal, 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. The board first met on 23 May 1894. Ironically, the PNB Website now claims Lala Lajpat Rai to be the founding father, surpassing Rai Mul Raj and Dyal Singh Majithia. The bank opened for business on 12 April 1895 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, Commercial Bank, was established in 1881 in Faizabad, but failed in 1958.)

PNB has had the privilege of maintaining accounts of national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, Shrimati Indira Gandhi, as well as the account of the famous Jalianwala Bagh Committee.