The First bank in India | List of First in Banking History

At some point in time, you would have wondered that which was the first bank of India? Well in this article, we are answering this question for you. Going by the history, it is known that banking did exist in the Ancient India and the banks were basically known as usury.

As per the Vedas, the banking started in India in between 2000 and 1400 BCE. Some of the historians also claim that the loan deeds also existed in the ancient India and they were often known as rnalekaya. In the later period during the Mauryan Era, there was the concept of adesha which was nothing but the bill of exchange.

Modern Day Bank

Moving towards the modern India, the first bank of India was Bank of Hindustan. This bank was established in the year 1770 but the bank was liquidated after the 50 years of operations. As per the information, the bank failed between 18229 and 1832.

Name in English – Bank of Hindustan
Name in Hindi – बैंक ऑफ हिन्दुस्तान
Name in Tamil – ஹிந்துஸ்தான் வங்கி

In addition to this, the second oldest bank in India was established in the year 1786 and the bank could only operate till 1791 before it collapsed. The name of this bank was Bank of India.

State Bank of India

Later in 1806, Bank of Calcutta was incepted and this bank was later renamed as Bank of Bengal. After many orders to rename this bank, the State Bank of India came into existence. Yes, that is right, State Bank is Bank of Calcutta and this final change in the name went through in 1955.

So technically when you are dealing with State Bank of India, you are dealing with 211 years old bank. State Bank of India is also the largest public sector bank in India and all the banks in India are governed by Reserve Bank of India which is the central banking agency of India. RBI was established in 1935 and it is one of the most powerful institutions in India