Oriental Bank of Commerce

Oriental Bank of Commerce

Type	Public (BSE: 500315, NSE: ORIENTBANK)
Industry	Banking Financial services
Founded	19 February 1943
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Key people	Nagesh Pydah (Chairman & MD)
Products	Investment Banking Consumer Banking Commercial Banking Retail Banking Private Banking Asset Management Pensions Mortgages Credit Cards
Revenue	Rs. 11457.17 Crore (2010) [1]
Net income	Rs. 1134.68 Crore (2010)[1]
Total assets	Rs. 8237.958 Crore (2010)[1]
Employees	15,358 (2010)[1]
Website	www.obcindia.co.in

Oriental Bank of Commerce (BSE: 500315, NSE: ORIENTBANK) is an India-based bank in Lahore (then a city of British India, and currently in Pakistan), is one of the public sector banks in India. The Company operates in four segments: treasury operations, corporate/wholesale banking, retail banking and other banking business operations.

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} At one time profit plummeted to Rs.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.^{[citation needed]}

The bank was nationalized on 15th April, 1980. At that time total working of the bank was Rs.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.^{[citation needed]}

The bank has progressed on several fronts crossing the Business Mix mark of Rs 2 lacs crores as on 31st 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.^{[citation needed]}

Chairpersons

The Chairpersons (CMD)of the banks were as under: Sl No Name Period

1. Karam Chand Thapar 1946 to 1961
2. L. M. Thapar 1961 to 1969
3. R. P. Oberoi 1973 to 1976
4. M. K. Vig 1976 to 1983
5. P. S. Gopalakrishnan1984 to 1988
6. S. P. Talwar 1988 to 1990
7. S. K. Soni 1990 to 1996
8. Dalbir Singh 1996 to 2000
9. B. D. Narang 2000 to 2005
10. K. N. Prithviraj 2005 to 2007
11. Alok Kumar Misra 2007 to 04/08/2009
12. T. Y. Prabhu 2009 to jan 2011
13. Nagesh Paidah jan 2011 onwards

Overview

The bank offers features such as internet banking, phone banking NRI banking etc. However, it does not allow online banking access from outside India.

The Bank has launched yet another people's participation in the planning process at grass root level essentially to tackle the maladies of poverty. The Grameen Projects venture aims to alleviate poverty plus identify the reasons responsible for the failure or success.

OBC is already implementing a GRAMEEN PROJECT in Dehradun District (UP) and Hanumangarh District (Rajasthan). Formulated on the pattern of the Bangladesh Grameen Bank, the Scheme has a unique feature of disbursing small loans ranging from Rs. 75 (US $2) onwards. The beneficiaries of the Grameen Project are mostly women.The Bank is engaged in providing training to rural folk in using locally available raw material to produce pickles, jams etc. This has provided self-employment and augmented income levels thus reforming lives of rural folk and encouraging cottage industries in rural areas.^{[citation needed]}

OBC launched yet another unique^{[citation needed]} scheme christened 'The Comprehensive Village Development Programme' on the auspicious day of Baisakhi, the 13th of April 1997 at three villages in Punjab namely Rurki Kalan (Distt. Sangrur), Raje Majra (Distt. Ropar) and Khaira Majha (Distt. Jaladhar) and two villages in Haryana, namely Khunga (Distt. Jind) and Narwal (Distt. Kaithal). The pilot launch was a great success. Emboldened by the success, Bank extended the programme to more villages. At present, it covers 15 villages; 10 in Punjab, 4 in Haryana and 1 in Rajasthan. The programme focuses on providing a comprehensive and integrated package providing rural finance to the villagers with Village Development as its focus, thus contributing towards infrastructural development and augmentation of income for each farmer of the village. The Bank has implemented 14 point action plan for strengthening of credit delivery to women and has designated 5 branches as specialized branches for women entrepreneurs.^{[citation needed]}

Amalgamation with Global Trust Bank

On 14 August 2004, Global Trust Bank Limited (GTB) was amalgamated into OBC. GTB was a leading private sector bank in India that was associated with various financial discrepancies leading to a moratorium being imposed by RBI shortly before being merged into OBC.

See also

• Banking in India
• All India Oriental Bank Officers Association
• List of Cooperative Banks in India

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "OBC Performance Annual Report 2010". OBC. https://www.obcindia.co.in/obcnew/upload/obc/MainMenuEnglishLevel-3_PerformanceGlance.pdf. Retrieved 6 September 2010. 

External links

• Official site of OBC
• Website of Oriental Bank Officers Association
• Find IFSC Code of all ORIENTAL BANK OF COMMERCE branches in India, or Branch Details by IFSC Code
• Oriental Bank ATM Locations
• Swift Code of Oriental Bank Bank