Nostalgia gripped most of the employees of State Bank of Mysore (SBM) on its last day as an associate bank of the State Bank of India, before it gets merged with SBI today.

The bank wound up by releasing and screening Nenapu , a 20-minute short film, documenting the history and growth of ‘Mysooru Bank’. As the documentary was aired many watched it with moist eyes. Many senior functionaries of the bank, some of whom have served for over three decades, could not hold back their emotions and broke down.

History

SBM was established in 1913 as The Bank of Mysore Ltd under the patronage of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, at the instance of the banking committee headed by M Visvesvaraya. The bank was affectionately called ‘Mysore Bank’ or ‘Namma Bank’.

In 1953, the bank was appointed as an agent of the Reserve Bank of India to undertake government business and treasury operations, and in March 1960, it became a subsidiary of the SBI under the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act 1959.

Later, the bank became an associate bank under the State Bank Group with the SBI holding 92.33 per cent shares in it. The bank’s shares were listed on the Bangalore, Madras, and Bombay stock exchanges. The bank has a strong presence in Karnataka.

Workforce, branches

The bank has a workforce of 10,226 employees, consisting of 3,600 supervisory staff and 6,626 non-supervisory staff (as on December 31, 2016). It has a vast network of 1,074 branches across the country.

The bank crossed total business of ₹1.33 lakh crore at the end of the third quarter (December 31, 2016).

Now, after 104 years of banking history, SBM walks into the sunset as it merges with SBI.

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