The story
Union Bank of India was established on 11-November-1919 in Bombay (now Mumbai) by Mr. Seth Sitaram Poddar. The bank shifted their registered corporate office to News Street, Fort, Bombay in 1921. This office was inaugurated by Venerable Gandhi.
At the time of India's independence in 1947, the bank had four branches – three in Bombay and one in Saurashtra in trade centres. By the time the Union of India nationalised UBI in 1969, it had 240 branches. Post nationalisation, the bank sponsored four regional banks.
In 1975, it acquired Belgaum Bank, a private sector bank established in 1930 that had itself merged in a bank in 1964, the Shri Jadeya Shankarling Bank (Bijapur; incorporated on 10-May-1948). In 1985, it acquired Miraj State Bank, which had been established in 1929, and which had 26 branches. In 1999, UBI acquired Sikkim Bank with its eight branches.
In 2002, the bank undertook a public offer of equity shares, listing on NSE and BSE.
The global expansion of UBI began with the opening of representative offices in Doha and Qatar in 2004. UBI expanded internationally in 2007 with the opening of offices in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and in Shanghai, China. In 2008, it established a branch in Hong Kong. In 2009, Union Bank opened a representative office in Sydney, Australia.
In March-2011, the subsidiary of Union Bank of India, Union KBC Mutual Fund, received SEBI approval to act as the asset management company. In 2016, UBI completed the acquisition of 49% shareholding of Union KBC Asset Management Company Private Limited and Union KBC Trustee Company Private Limited from KBC participants and its affiliates. As a result of this, they became subsidiaries of the bank.
On 30-August-2019, Union Minister of Finance Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman announced that Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank would be merged into Union Bank of India (UBI). The proposed merger would make Union Bank the fifth largest public sector bank in the country with assets of ₹14.59 lakh crore (US$150 billion) and 9,609 branches. After the requisite approvals, the merger was completed on 01-April-2020. After the merger, the bank had 9,500 branches and over 13,300 ATMs. As of March-2020, the state shareholding stood at 86.75%.
From Wikipedia’s article on Union Bank of India, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5