Industry: Banking
Widely known for customer centricity, Canara Bank was founded by Shri Ammembal Subba Rao Pai in July 1906, at Mangalore, then a small port in Karnataka. The bank has gone through the various phases of its growth trajectory over hundred years of its existence. Growth of Canara Bank was phenomenal, especially after nationalization in the year 1969, attaining the status of a national level player in terms of geographical reach and clientele segments. Eighties was characterized by business diversification for the Bank. In June 2006, the Bank completed a century of operation in the Indian banking industry. The eventful journey of the Bank has been characterized by several memorable milestones. Today, Canara Bank occupies a premier position in the comity of Indian banks. With an unbroken record of profits since its inception, Canara Bank has several firsts to its credit. These include:
- Launching of Inter-City ATM Network
- Obtaining ISO Certification for a Branch
- Articulation of ‘Good Banking’ – Bank’s Citizen Charter
- Commissioning of Exclusive Mahila Banking Branch
- Launching of Exclusive Subsidiary for IT Consultancy
- Issuing credit card for farmers
- Providing Agricultural Consultancy Services
Over the years, the Bank has been scaling up its market position to emerge as a major ‘Financial Conglomerate’ with as many as nine subsidiaries/sponsored institutions/joint ventures in India and abroad. As at March 2010, the Bank has further expanded its domestic presence, with 3043 branches spread across all geographical segments. Keeping customer convenience at the forefront, the Bank provides a wide array of alternative delivery channels that include over 2000 ATMs- one of the highest among nationalized banks- covering 728 centres, 1959 branches providing Internet and Mobile Banking (IMB) services and 2091 branches offering ‘Anywhere Banking’ services. Under advanced payment and settlement system, all branches of the bank have been enabled to offer Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) facilities.
The bank has also carved a distinctive mark, in various corporate social responsibilities, namely, serving national priorities, promoting rural development, enhancing rural self-employment through several training institutes and spearheading financial inclusion objective. Promoting an inclusive growth strategy, which has been formed as the basic plank of national policy agenda today, is in fact deeply rooted in the bank’s founding principles.
