State Bank of Travancore - History

History

The bank was established in 1945 as the Travancore Bank Ltd, at the initiative of C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, then Divan of Travancore. Following violent resentment against the dictatorial rule of Sir. C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer, the bank no longer credits his role. Instead, the Bank now credits the Maharaja of Travancore as the founder, though the Raja had little to do with the founding. Although the Travancore government put up only 25% of the capital, the bank undertook government treasury work and foreign exchange business, apart from its general banking business. Its registered office was at Madras. In 1960, it became a subsidiary of State Bank of India under the SBI Subsidiary Banks Act, 1959, enacted by the Parliament of India.

Between 1959 and 1965, SBT acquired numerous small, private banks in Kerala.

• 1959: SBT acquired the assets and liabilities of Indo-Mercantile Bank, which Sri Popatlal Goverdhan Lalan had helped found in Cochin in 1937.
• 1961: SBT acquired Travancore Forward Bank, Kottayam Orient Bank, and Bank of New India (est. 1944) after the Reserve Bank of India put the banks under moratorium.
• 1963: SBT acquired Vasudeva Vilasom Bank.
• 1964: SBT acquired Cochin Nayar Bank (est. 1929) and Latin Christian Bank after the Reserve Bank of India put the banks under moratorium. It also acquired Champakulam Catholic Bank.
• 1965: SBT acquired Bank of Alwaye (est. 1942), and Chaldean Syrian Bank, which several leading families of Syrian Christian origin had founded in 1918.