This war, which started between the British and the Marathas, unfortunately ended in the defeat of the Marathas and a treaty with the British. In the year 1806, the British converted the funding institution into a bank.
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this is the story British India Of. There was a government official in Britain – Richard Wellesley. In 1798, the British called him as the Governor General of India. In 1799, Wellesley’s army attacked Mysore and defeated Tipu Sultan. With this the Second Anglo-Maratha War started. To provide financial aid to Wellesley during the war, the British made a banking system created. Money was also reaching Wellesley’s army from England for these battles.
Even though the money was coming to Wellesley from England, but this money was looted from India itself. By looting the money of India, the English used to fill their bags and send them to England. This money was coming back to India and was being used only against Indians in the war. That institution was converted into a bank by the British government. This is what we know today as SBI i.e. State Bank of India. In today’s Brand Story, this is the story of SBI.
Bank of Calcutta to Bank of Bengal
This war, which started between the British and the Marathas, unfortunately ended in the defeat of the Marathas and a treaty with the British. In the year 1806, the British converted the funding institution into a bank, which was named ‘Bank of Calcutta’. Calcutta was the capital of India then. Three years later, in 1809, the British changed the name of this bank to ‘Bank of Bengal’. The British were using this bank as a weapon to keep India enslaved.
Gradually the branches of Bank of Bengal started opening in Patna, Banaras, Mirzapur, Rangoon also. Its purpose was also the same, funding against the Indian rebellion. It was only after the suppression of the revolt of 1857 that it started operating in the form of banking. This rebellion was crushed in November 1858. Three years later, the first branch of Bank of Bengal opened in Rangoon. Then a year later in 1862, branches were opened in Patna, Mirzapur and Banaras also. First the East India Company was ruled and then the power was controlled by the Queen of England. One of the purposes of opening bank branches in all the cities was to establish British rule.
Accounts from Dadabhai to Gurudev
Bank of Bengal had accounts of eminent people of the country. Politician Dadabhai Naoroji, scientist Jagdishchandra Basu, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, social reformer Ishwarchand Vidyasagar and Dr. Rajendra Prasad also took the service of this bank. Even today, in many bank branches of SBI, their names and photographs are seen as reputed account holders.
After the Bank of Bengal, the East India Company established two more Presidency banks. ‘Bank of Bombay’ in 1840 and then ‘Bank of Madras’ in 1843. In 1921, Bank of Bengal was merged with these two banks and the bank got a new name- ‘Imperial Bank of India’.
SBI was renamed after independence
The story changed eight years after independence, when in 1955 the Reserve Bank of India took over 60 per cent stake in Imperial Bank of India. Now the name of this bank was changed to ‘State Bank of India’. Now one problem was that since the RBI is the central regulatory body of the Indian banking system, holding a stake in a public sector bank could lead to a conflict of interest. Therefore, the Government of India took the Reserve Bank’s stake in SBI. In this way State Bank became a public sector bank. Today SBI is the largest bank in India. It is the largest employer in the country in the banking sector and employs more than 2.5 lakh people.
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