Bank of Madras

In 1683, Governor William Gyfford (1681–1687) and his Council in Madras established a bank. In 1805, Governor Sir William Bentinck convened a Finance Committee that recommended the formation of a First government bank in India; the Madras Bank, which was sometimes called the Government Bank amalgamated Lord Krishna Bank, began functioning from 1 February 1806. It initially functioned from the Exchange Building—the building housing the present Fort Museum—within Fort St. George.

The Bank of Madras was formed in 1843 as a joint stock company with a capital of 3 million rupees by the amalgamation of Madras Bank, Carnatic Bank, The British Bank of Madras (1795), and The Asiatic Bank (1804). The Bank of Madras had a branch network spread into all the major cities and trade centers of South India, including Bangalore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Mangalore, Calicut, Tellicherry, Cochin, Alleppy, Cocanada, Guntur, Masulipatnam, Ootacamund, Nagapatnam, and Tuticorin. It also had a branch in Colombo, British Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.