Oriental Bank of Commerce Ltd. history, profile and history video

 Oriental Bank of Commerce Ltd. provides banking and financial services. The company operates its business through four segments: Treasury Operations, Corporate/Wholesale Banking, Retail Banking and Other Banking Business Operations. The Treasury Operations segment consists of dealing in securities and Money Market Operations. The Corporate/Wholesale Banking segment includes all advances to trusts, partnership firms, companies and statutory bodies. The Retail Banking segment provides services to individual, hindu undivided family, partnership firm, trust, private limited companies, public limited companies, co-operative societies and to a small business. The Other Banking Business Operations segment includes all other banking operations which are not covered under treasury, wholesale banking and retail banking segments. It also provides education loan and merchant banking services. Oriental Bank of Commerce was founded in 1943 and is headquartered in New Delhi, India.“

“Oriental Bank of Commerce History

Oriental Bank of Commerce made a beginning under its Founding Father, Late Rai Bahadur Lala Sohan Lal, the first Chairman of the Bank. Within four years of coming into existence, the Bank had to face partition. Branches in the newly formed Pakistan had to be closed down and the Registered Office had to be shifted from Lahore to Amritsar. Late lala Karam Chand Thapar, the then Chairman of the Bank, in a unique gesture honoured the commitments made to the depositors from Pakistan and paid every rupee to its departing customers.

The Bank has witnessed many ups and downs since its establishment. The period of 1970-76 is said to be the most challenging phase in the history of the Bank. At one time profit plummeted to 175, that prompted the owner of the bank, the Thapar House, to sell / close the bank. Then employees and leaders of the Bank came forward to rescue the Bank. The owners were moved and had to change their decision of selling the bank and in turn they decided to improve the position of the bank with the active cooperation and support of all the employees. Their efforts bore fruits and performance of the bank improved significantly. This was the turning point in the history of the bank.

The bank was nationalised on 15 April 1980. At that time total working of the bank was 483 crores having 19th position among the 20 nationalised banks. Within a decade the bank turned into one of the most efficient and best performing banks of India.

The bank has progressed on several fronts crossing the Business Mix mark of 2 lac crores as on 31 March 2010 making it the seventh largest Public Sector Bank in India, achievement of 100% CBS, reorienting of lending strategy through Large & Mid Corporates and establishment of new wings viz., Rural Development and Retail & Priority Sector. The bank has to its utmost credit lowest staff cost with highest productivity in the Indian banking industry.”

*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org

**Video published on YouTube by “Ranajoy Bhattacharjee“