City Union Bank

In 1904, in the town of Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, India, a group of twenty citizens, including S. Krishna Iyer, V. Krishnaswami Iyengar, and R. Santhanam Iyer, came together to start a bank. They called it The Kumbakonam Bank Limited. Its primary goal was to serve the local community, focusing on farmers and traders in the Thanjavur district. For years, the bank maintained its regional focus, slowly and steadily building trust. A significant step came in 1945 when it was included in the Second Schedule of the Reserve Bank of India Act, a mark of its reliability. The first major strategic move happened in 1965 when the bank merged with two other local entities, The City Forward Bank and The Union Bank. This amalgamation led to a new name: The Kumbakonam City Union Bank Limited. The bank began to expand beyond its home district, opening its first branch outside Tamil Nadu in Bangalore in 1980. To reflect its growing, national image, the name was officially changed to City Union Bank Limited in 1987. The playbook then shifted towards embracing technology. Computerization of all branches began in 1990, a significant move for its time. The bank launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the 1998 financial year, marking its transition to a publicly-traded company. This event provided the capital and platform for further growth. The journey continued with the adoption of core banking solutions in the early 2000s, followed by net banking in 2005 and mobile banking in 2010, ensuring it kept pace with the digital transformation of the financial industry.