The story
Founded by A. B. Shetty in 1931.1
Vijaya Bank was established by a group of farmers led by A. B. Shetty on 23 October 1931 in Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada district of Princely State of Mysore (present-day Karnataka). Since it was established on day of Vijayadashami, it was named "Vijaya Bank".
During the economic chaos created out of the Great Depression of 1927–30, Shetty approached leading Bunt personalities to start a bank with the objective of extending credit facilities at a lower rate of interest to enable the farmers to cultivate their lands and prevent them from falling into the clutches of money lenders. Accordingly, Shetty involved 14 Bunts and established Vijaya Bank on 23 October 1931. In the beginning the bank had an authorised capital of ₹5 lakh and an issued capital of ₹2 lakh. The paid up capital was ₹8,670.
Growth and nationalisation
The bank grew steadily since its inception. The bank became a scheduled bank in 1958. Under the chairmanship of Shri. Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty, Vijaya Bank steadily grew into a large All India Bank with 9 smaller banks merging with it during 1963–1968. In 1965, the bank registered its own logo. The bank's head office was shifted to Bangalore on 11 November 1969. The bank was nationalised on 15 April 1980. At the time of nationalization, the bank had 571 branches, with a total business of ₹605.95 crore and a staff strength of 9059.
The present head office building of the Bank is at Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore. It was inaugurated on 26 October 1984.
Amalgamation
On 17 September 2018, the Finance Ministry of the Government of India proposed to amalgamate 3 state run banks, viz. Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank into a single bank as an effort to consolidate the country's banking system. The amalgamated bank was set to become the third biggest bank in India with a total business of more than ₹1,482,000,000,000 (equivalent to ₹2.2 trillion or US$22 billion in 2026). The boards of the three banks are to meet to consider the proposal. The agenda behind the amalgamation of the banks was to lower Non-performing assets. The Gross NPA OF the Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank is 12.4%, 6.9% and 22% respectively.
The merger was approved by the Union Cabinet and the boards of the banks on 2 January 2019. Under the terms of the merger, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank shareholders received 110 and 402 equity shares of the Bank of Baroda, respectively, of face value ₹2 for every 1,000 shares they held. The merger is effective from 1 April 2019. Vijaya Bank that has merged with Bank of Baroda has built a museum that dedicated to its history.
From Wikipedia’s article on Vijaya Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5