List of oldest banks in India explained

This list of the oldest banks in India includes financial institutions that were founded in the 18th and 19th centuries. Listed are the forty oldest banks in India, which includes all financial institutions founded prior to 1850.

The oldest bank in India is The Madras Bank (1683), followed by the Bank of Bombay, founded in 1720, which is then followed by the Bank of Hindustan, founded in 1770.

The oldest bank still in operation is the State Bank of India, whose origins can be traced back to the Bank of Calcutta. It was founded in 1806, though the tenth to be founded.^[1]

Rank	Name of bank	Year of founding	Year of closing	Present status	Headquartered in	References^[2]
1		1683	1843			^[3] ^[4]
2		1720	1770	Defunct
3		1770	1832	Defunct
4		1773	1775	Defunct
5		1784	1791	Defunct
6		1786	1791	Defunct
7		1788	1843
8		1795	1843
9		1804	1843
10		1806	1921
11		1819	1828
12		1824	1828
13	The Bank of India	1828	1829	Defunct
14		1828	1848	Defunct
15		1833	1843	Defunct
16		1833	1866	Defunct
17		1835	1837	Defunct
18	Bank of India (London)	1836	1836	Defunct
19		1840	1859	Defunct
20		1840	1921
21	Bank of Asia	1841	1842	Defunct
22	The Bank of Ceylon	1841	1849
23	The East India Bank (1842)	1842	1842	Defunct
24		1842	1884	Defunct
25		1842	1863	Defunct
26		1843	1921
27		1844	1916
28		1844	1850	Defunct
29		1844	1893	Defunct
30		1845	1866	Defunct
31		1845	1852	Defunct
32		1846	1862
33	The London Bank of Australia and India	1852	1852	Defunct
34		1852	1855	Defunct
35		1853	1853	Defunct
36		1853	1853	Defunct
37		1854	1857	Defunct
38		1854	1854	Defunct

Locations of headquarters

The below cities are frequently listed among the headquarters of the banks mentioned in the above table.

Rank	Name of city	Number of ancient banks headquartered
1		11
2		6
3		5
4		4
5		3

See also

• History of banking
• Banking in India
• List of oldest companies
• List of oldest companies in India
• Lindy effect

External links

• List maintained by the Reserve Bank of India
• Evolution of Banking in India
• Charles Northcote Cooke
• History of Banking in India

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Evolution of Banking in India. 3 December 2018. 23 May 2021. 23 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210523130109/https://groww.in/blog/the-evolution-of-banking-in-India/. live.
2. Web site: The World's Biggest Employers. Forbes. 31 July 2015. 26 June 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150626010436/https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/06/23/the-worlds-biggest-employers-infographic/. live.
3. Web site: Reserve Bank of India - Museum. rbi.org.in. 22 May 2021. 20 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211020132511/https://rbi.org.in/scripts/ms_banks.aspx. live.
4. Book: Banking Reforms and Globalisation. 9788131301593. Shrivastava. Mohan Prasad. 2007. APH . 10 April 2022. 2 August 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230802002112/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0o8GRVjunUC&dq=The+%22Bank+of+Mirzapore%22+1835&pg=PA24. live.