Jammu & Kashmir Bank

J&K Bank was founded on 1 October 1938, under letters patent issued by the then Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh.

Maharaja of Parmar Rajputs was invited as an investor by Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh to become founding director and shareholders of the bank.

The bank commenced banking business on 4 July 1939 and was considered the first of its nature and composition as a state-owned bank in the country. The bank was established as a semi-state bank with participation in capital by state and the public under the control of state government.

After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided and two branches of the bank out of the then 10 branches viz. Muzaffarabad Rawalkot and Mirpur (now in Azad Kashmir administered by Pakistan) fell to the other side of the Line of Control along with cash and other assets.

The bank is defined as a government company under the Indian Companies Act, 2013. In 1971, the bank acquired the status of a scheduled bank and was declared an ‘A’ class bank by Reserve Bank of India in 1976.

Network

As of 31 December 2025, the bank maintains a network of around 5000 touch points - 1008 branches, 1436 ATMs, 169 CRMs and 99 Ultra Small Branches known as Easy Banking Units (EBUs), distributed across 18 states and 4 Union Territories. 835 of the branches are in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and 37 are in the Union Territory of Ladakh and 136 branches outside the UTs of J&K and Ladakh.

Within the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, the bank operates a total of 99 Easy Banking Units (EBUs). 36 of these EBUs are situated in the Union Territory of Ladakh, while the rest operate in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir bank has a four layered architecture viz., Division, Zone, Cluster & Branch. Bank works in layers, that is, geographically, the bank has divided the area under its jurisdictions into three Divisions viz., Kashmir Division (includes UT of Ladakh), Jammu Division & Rest of India Division (ROI) headed by Divisional Heads. The Divisions are divided into Zones headed by Zonal Heads. Further these zones are divided into clusters which are headed by cluster heads. These clusters are divided in Branches which are headed by Branch Managers who report to Cluster Heads/Zonal Heads.Kashmir division has 6 zonal offices and 17 cluster offices, Jammu division has 5 zonal offices and 13 cluster offices while rest of india consists of 2 zonal offices and 5 cluster offices.

Subsidiaries

J&K Bank provides investment & stock broking through its wholly owned subsidiary JKB Financial Services Limited (JKBFSL). It has 12 branches (5 Branches in Kashmir, 6 Branches in Jammu and 1 Branch in Gurgaon) besides having sales desks at 61 J&K Bank branches across the Union Territory of J&K.