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Bank of Madras merged into the Imperial Bank of India

· Chennai

Bank of Madras merged into the Imperial Bank of India
Imperial bank of India, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The Bank of Madras, one of three Presidency banks, was amalgamated with the banks of Bengal and Bombay to form the Imperial Bank of India.

The Bank of Madras had been incorporated in 1843 as the Presidency bank for southern India. On 27 January 1921 it was merged with the Bank of Bengal and the Bank of Bombay to create the Imperial Bank of India. The new bank was largely privately owned and acted as India's central bank before 1935. The Imperial Bank was nationalised in 1955 as the State Bank of India.

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