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| 1806-bank-of-calcuttapuronokolkata.com |
Above images: The Bank of Calcutta,, a precursor to the present State Bank of India, was founded on June 2, 1806 with the main purpose of serving the East India company and its expansionism in India.. Though countless banks across India in the 1800s and 1900s failed for various reasons the Bank of Bengal always stood ground and never failed because of tight banking regulations. .......................
Having already become the owner of Bengal and and adjacent regions with vast revenue, the company was on an expansion spree under General Wellesley’. To meet the huge war expenses to facilitate raids against the Marathas and Tipu Sultan of Mysore, the Bank of Calcutta was formed to finance the wars. During 1860s the bank opened four branches in Rangoon, Banaras, Patna and Mirzapur. In 1806 the Dacca bank, established in 1846, merged with bank of Calcutta It was the first bank of India and was renamed Bank of Bengal on 2 January 1809. At present, the heritage building does not exist.
As for Bombay Presidency bank (BPB), it catered to the needs of cotton merchants as the Bombay cotton markets were doing well as supplies from the US had declined due to the civil war there. Several cotton companies came up and the banks had a swell time. However when the civil war in America ended there was big bust in Bombay cotton market. The euphoria in the Indian cotton market turned to panic. The hitherto stable bank came to a swift close. A new Bank of Bombay was founded immediately in 1868. The financial institutions were backbone not only to the English company and other companies as well. The collapse of banks in Bombay and later in Kolkata made the banking authorities to be careful and they stated the banks with limited liability. thus began an era of prudent banking in the colonial days.
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| Bank of Calcutta, oldest bank of Asia that never failed alamy.com |
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| Bank of Calcutta, oldest bank of Asia getbengal.com |
Above image: Heritage bank building lost for ever, Kolkata. the old Bank of Calcutta building on Strand street has become a thing of the past. It was demolished without using discretion to build a new structure in the 1980s..
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| SBI head office, Kolkata old heritage building gone.ommons.wikimedia.org |
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| State bank of India, Samridhhi, Kolkata. upload.wikimedia.org |
In the later period two Presidency banks came into being under Royal Charters one at Bombay and the other at Madras. In January 1921 all the Presidency banks merged to form Imperial bank. Till the formation of the reserve bank of India Imperial bank acted as the Central bank for British India.
After independence State bank was formed in April 1955 from Imperial bank and the main Kolkata office building on Strand street owned by the bank was facing demolition in 1980. Reason cited was the building had weak foundation. There was a proposal to build a 14 floor structure. After protests from many quarters, the bank authorities decided to recreate two floors of the tall building. The new building called Samriddhi Bhavan built in neo classical style serves as the local head office of SBI Kolkata.
Its 11th floor houses first banking museum of our country. The archive and the museum has countless records including those from the colonial era thus preserving the legacy of banking industry in India that began two centuries ago right here in Kolkata.
https://puronokolkata.com/2013/08/19/commercial-houses-1806-b
https://www.getbengal.com/details/bank-of-calcutta-oldest-bank-of-asia-never-failed
https://noisebreak.com/legend-lost-death-vintage-building-old-sbi-building-strand-road/
https://www.tutorialathome.in/history/bank-bengal-building
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