The Central Bank of India was established on 21 December 1911 by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala with Sir Pherozeshah Mehta as Chairman,and claims to have been the first commercial Indian bank completely owned and managed by Indians.
Central Bank of India, a government-owned bank, is one of the oldest and largest commercial banks in India. It is based in Mumbai which is the financial capital of India and capital city of state of Maharashtra.The bank has 4741 branches, 5000 ATM’s and 4 extension counters across 27 Indian states and three Union Territories. At present, Central Bank of India has overseas office at Nairobi, Hong Kong and a joint venture with Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, and the Zambian government. The Zambian government holds 40 per cent stake and each of the banks has 20 per cent. Recently it has also opened a representative office at Nairobi in Kenya.
Central bank of India is one of 19 Public Sector banks in India to get recapitalisation finance from the government over the next 24 months.
Central Bank of India has approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for permission to open representative offices in five more locations – Singapore, Dubai, Doha and London.
Established in 1911, Central Bank of India was the first Indian commercial bank which was wholly owned and managed by Indians. The establishment of the Bank was the ultimate realisation of the dream of Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala, founder of the Bank. Sir Pherozesha Mehta was the first Chairman of a truly ‘Swadeshi Bank’. In fact, such was the extent of pride felt by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala that he proclaimed Central Bank of India as the ‘property of the nation and the country’s asset’. He also added that ‘Central Bank of India lives on people’s faith and regards itself as the people’s own bank’.
During the past 104 years of history the Bank has weathered many storms and faced many challenges. The Bank could successfully transform every threat into business opportunity and excelled over its peers in the Banking industry.
Further in line with the guidelines from Reserve Bank of India as also the Government of India, Central Bank has been playing an increasingly active role in promoting the key thrust areas of agriculture, small scale industries as also medium and large industries. The Bank also introduced a number of Self Employment Schemes to promote employment among the educated youth.
Among the Public Sector Banks, Central Bank of India can be truly described as an All India Bank, due to distribution of its large network in all 29 States as also in 6 out of 7 Union Territories in India. Central Bank of India holds a very prominent place among the Public Sector Banks on account of its network of 4741 Branches, 1 Extension counters, along with 10 Satellite Offices (as on October 2016) at various centres throughout the length and breadth of the country.
(Ref:https://www.centralbankofindia.co.in/English/profile.aspx & https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Central_ Bank_ of_ India & Government Job Updates)