Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited

The history of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank dates back to 1921. The idea to establish a bank for the business community was first proposed at the annual meeting of the Mahajana Sangam held at Thoothukudi in 1920.

The bank was originally registered on 11 May 1921, as The Bank Limited, under the Indian Companies Act, 1913. M. V. Shanmugavel was elected as the first chairman on 4 November 1921. The bank was opened to the public by T. V. Balagurusamy on 11 November 1921 in Ana Mavanna Building at South Raja Street, Thoothukudi.

In 1937, the Bank opened a branch in Sri Lanka, but by 1939 it had closed it.

By 1947, the bank had only four branches: Thoothukudi, Madurai, Sivakasi and Virudhunagar. The bank opened its first Indian branch outside the state of Tamil Nadu in 1976 at Bengaluru.

The bank was formerly known as The Nadar Bank Ltd. and changed its name to Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited in November 1962.

The first fully computerised branch was opened at WGC Road, Thoothukudi on 9 December 1984. The Bank launched its ATM Card on 11 November 2003.

On 6 September 2021, the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise funds through an initial public offering. On 7 June 2022, the company received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India for its Initial public offering.

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank got listed on the stock exchanges (BSE and NSE) on September 15, 2022, following its initial public offering (IPO) which ran from September 5 to September 7, 2022.

Technology initiatives

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank was the first private sector bank in India to introduce computerisation for branch-level operations. The bank adopted modernization as early in the year 1983. Today all 509 branches of the bank are networked using Infosys's "FINACLE" Software and have achieved 100% connectivity.

RTGS/NEFT facilities in ebanking have been successfully implemented. The bank has also entered into an agreement with BillDesk (India ideas.com), CCAvenue (Avenues India), SBI ePay, Atom Technologies and PayU India for providing payment gateway services to the internet banking customers. It was the first old bank to have introduced mobile banking and providing POS machines to their Customers.

Tie-up arrangement made with Western Union Money Transfer, UAE Exchange & Financial Services...etc. for remittances from abroad to India to facilitate quick receipt of remittances by the beneficiaries. The bank has tie-up agreement with ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund, Reliance Mutual Fund, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Sundaram Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund for selling their Mutual Fund Products. The bank became a Depository participant through NSDL to make available Demat facilities. TMB was the first bank in south India to offer ASBA facilities. It also offers off-line and online share-trading through Religare Securities. TMB entered the commodity futures market by becoming a clearing bank for NCDEX and MCX. It was one of the first banks in the banking industry to have online deposit opening through the TMB e-connect facility.

TMB has introduced "Choose Your Account Number" facility for anywhere banking account holders and introduced Missed Call Banking to check Account Balance, BSNL bill payment through branches and RuPay Debit Card.

Controversies

In 2021 the directors of the bank were fined on two occasions. Once for an amount of ₹11.33 crores and ₹5.33 crores for another. The fine was for authorising transfer of shares to foreign entities such as RST Limited, Katra Holdings Limited, GHI I Limited, Kamehameha (Mauritius) Limited, FI Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Cuna Group (Mauritius) Limited, and Swiss Re Investors (Mauritius) Limited, Sub-Continental Equities Ltd, Mauritius, and Robert & Adris James Company Limited, Mauritius not authorised by Reserve Bank of India for acquiring shares in the bank.