catholic syrian bank
the board of directors of catholic syrian bank has appointed anand krishnamurthy as the new managing director & chief executive officer of catholic syrian bank .
catholic syrian bank federal bank bank of india m. venugopalan v. p. iswardas larsen & toubro bank of ayudhia ganesh bank of kurundwad tamilnad mercantile bank s. santhanakrishnan
for all the branches of
catholic syrian bank ltd .
in
thrissur
district )
catholic syrian bank ltd. branches, kerala, all branch addresses, phone, ifsc code, micr code, urltoken
thrissur: tony john akkare, s. swaminathan and prakash g. tole were re - elected members of the director board of catholic syrian bank on thursday .
catholic syrian bank ceo c. v. r. rajendran says the bank has hired jm financial as the merchant banker for the qualified institutional placement (qip). photo: hemant mishra / mint
the products and services of the catholic syrian bank are meant to provide utmost customer satisfaction. by being a customer of the bank, one can be assured of financial stability and high returns. some of the well known segments under which the services of the bank are based are :
kochi: three new members were elected to the board of kerala - base catholic syrian bank (csb) on friday at the bank’s annual general body meeting. the new additions gain significance in light of almost year - long attempts to merge csb with kerala - based federal bank .
directors of the catholic syrian bank ltd are subbaiah singala, maniedath madhavan nambiar, ashish ahluwalia, madhavan karunakaran menon, thomas mathew, rajendran chinna veerappan, trikkur seetharaman anantharaman, radha unni, chirakkekaran bobbyjos, .
kochi: in what could be termed as a new year bonanza for thrissur - based catholic syrian bank (csb), the reserve bank of india (rbi) has granted approval to fairfax financial holdings, promoted by canadian billionaire prem watsa, to buy majority stake in the bank .
the earliest banks were mostly on community lines, which is in line with both the indian and global experience. the malayali bank, promoted by namboodiris, was the first such bank in 1919. this was followed by chaldean syrian bank, named after chaldean christians of thrissur. in 1921, c. r. iyyunni, a lawyer and social activist, set up catholic syrian bank. tamil brahmins of thrissur formed their own dhanalakshmi bank in 1927 .
thrissur is home to three major banks—catholic syrian bank, dhanalakshmi bank and south indian bank. these banks are currently classified as old private sector banks—they are among the few managed to survive in the private banking sector over the years. their history is quite remarkable and needs to be discussed briefly .
ranking among the well known private banks in india, the catholic syrian bank is an organization that is preferred by lots of customers across the country. it offers a number of customized solutions and services of high standards to fulfill the needs and preferences of the customers and help them to enjoy financial stability. the catholic syrian bank has a strong presence in the rural areas in india and is a well known financial organization related to the agricultural sector .
the catholic syrian bank ltd' s annual general meeting (agm) was last held on 25 september 2017 and as per records from ministry of corporate affairs (mca), its balance sheet was last filed on 31 march 2017 .
welcome to the catholic syrian bank. incorporated in 1920, csb is one of the pioneers of the banking industry in india. with a very progressive work environment and an increasingly youthful employee demographic, joining csb will give you space and opportunity to flourish .
insurance is a major part of the products and services of catholic syrian bank. there are long term insurance benefits as well as short term insurance benefits. one can avail car insurance, health insurance, housing insurance and lots more from the bank. some of the popular insurance products that are offered :
“the board has given the approval to raise up to rs400 crore through a qip before end october. we have appointed jm financial as the merchant banker, ” said c. v. r. rajendran, managing director and chief executive of catholic syrian bank .
to increase its overseas presence, the catholic syrian bank offers a number of high class services and financial solutions to the non resident indians. most of the banking transactions are carried online which makes it more hassle free, easy and convenient. some of the well known accounts which are offered by the bank are :
mumbai: kerala based - catholic syrian bank (csb) ltd is looking to raise as much as rs400 crore by selling shares to financial institutions, following the collapse of its plan to sell a major stake to prem watsa owned fairfax financial holdings ltd over differences in valuation .
john chandy, a local businessman and the convener of catholic syrian bank protection committee, an organisation that was formed when chansrichawla picked up his stake in the bank, believes the board prefers a merger. he wouldn’t give any evidence, but that’s the general perception as well — but for the disagreement on valuation, the merger would have gone through .
banking and financial services sector has seen the biggest qips, led by state bank of india (sbi) and kotak mahindra bank. other banks that have tapped the qip route this year include yes bank, federal bank, dcb bank and united bank of india, which have collectively raised close to rs8, 000 crore .
out of the nine banks, just four remain today, with three of them from trichur. a remarkable feat, considering the fact that there are only 12 old private sector banks in india now. the catholic syrian bank is about to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2020 and the other two are about to enter their 90s .
the catholic syrian bank ltd' s corporate identification number is (cin) u65191kl1920plc000175 and its registration number is 175. its email address is board @ urltoken and its registered address is head office ,
csb bhavan
, post box no. 502, st. mary' s college road, thrissur kl 680020 in, -, .
south indian bank was an exception. the 42 businessmen who formed the bank did not want the bank to be affiliated to a community or religion. thus, they chose the name “south indian bank” and registered it in 1929 .
guide: - click to refresh corresponding list field disabled / not selected please look for the correct name of the bank, e. g .
federal bank
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thingalaya (banks in the south: past, present and their future, 2009), in his exceptional work on india’s banking history, says that there were about 38 banks in thrissur alone. most of these banks were on community lines as their names indicate (cochin nayar bank, mar appraem bank, mar thoma syrian bank, etc .), some were dedicated to hindu gods (lakshmi prasad bank, sree radhakrishna bank, etc .) and others were more generic (bharata union bank, cochin reserve bank, etc .). from these 38 banks, we have three surviving banks, which makes their overall achievement even more impressive .
csb would be an ideal fit. there would be no cultural issues, as both banks serve in the same market. only about 16 branches would have to be relocated. a merger would make federal bank the biggest private bank in the south after icici bank and hdfc bank .
obviously, all this attention irks iswardas, who wants to retain the bank’s independence and the catholic syrian community in kochi, backed by the church that wants it to retain its community identity. their answer? to treble the business of the bank to rs. 30, 000 crore in two years, expand its footprint, create a presence in all states in the country and raise money from the market to fuel that growth. iswardas hopes that this would discourage existing investors from selling out .
the catholic syrian bank ltd is a public incorporated on 26 november 1920. it is classified as non - govt company and is registered at registrar of companies, ernakulam. its authorized share capital is rs. 1, 200, 000, 000 and its paid up capital is rs. 809, 620, 800. it is inolved in monetary intermediation [ this group includes the obtaining of funds in the form of deposits ]
head office the catholic syrian bank ltd csb bhavan, head office: p. b no. 502, st. mary' s college road, thrissur - 680 020 kerala, india phone: 91 - 487 - 2333020, 2333277, 2333420, 2333477, 2333493, 2333472, 2333469, 2333445, 2333261, 2338760, 2338759, 2338762, 2321137, 2332186, 2332058, 6451706, 6451708, 6451709 fax: 91 - 487 - 2333435 website: urltoken
catholic syrian bank’s qip plans comes at a time when fund raising through this route has touched a record this year. mint reported on 6 september that 18 companies raised rs34, 881. 5 crore through qips so far this year. after this, bajaj finance raised nearly rs4, 500 crore through a qip in early september, raising total qips to rs38, 681 crore, and beating the 2009 record of 54 companies raising rs34, 675. 75 crore through this route .
for iswardas, ironically, the biggest support would come from the representatives of the catholic syrian community. the csb protection committee is headed by the archbishop of thrissur diocese. it’s a powerful institution there. several churches, seminaries, trusts and institutions come under it. it runs 14 hospitals, six colleges, five professional colleges, training institutes, many schools. father raphael thattil, vicar general of the archdeocese, says the bank isn’t a mere commercial entity. the diocese, he says, is dead against any merger or the loss of the bank’s identity .
“we would like to see three years of profitability before we go for an ipo. meanwhile, we believe that fund - raising through qip will help us meet the bank’s capital requirement for the next two years, ” rajendran added. at the end of march, catholic syrian bank had a capital adequacy ratio of 12. 15% , higher than the 10. 25% mandated by basel - iii norms. but it needs to beef up its capital position to grow its loan book faster than the 3. 4% rate in 2016 - 17. the bank had reported two years of losses before showing a profit of rs1. 5 crore in 2016 - 17 .
iswardas’ office is on the fourth floor of csb towers, an undistinguished building surrounded by educational institutions — st. thomas college, st. mary’s college a couple of schools — not far from the heart of thrissur. some of these are run by thrissur diocese, a powerful christian institution that has had a long association with the bank. the church continues to bank with csb. the bank was started by the syrian christian community in thrissur back in the 1920s .
in 1994, csb seemed to be a good pick, and he bought 36 percent stake from the syrian christian community, which originally promoted the bank. however, things were anything but smooth — there were court cases saying he flouted foreign exchange norms and there was stiff resistance from the church .
his first target was lord krishna bank. the talks proceeded well enough and the two banks agreed in principle for a merger. but unions were against it, shareholders didn’t agree on the valuations, and he saw centurian bank of punjab snatching away his prize. a year later, he did acquire a bank (ganesh bank of kurundwad). it gave federal bank an additional 32 branches and a footprint in maharashtra, but nothing of the size he desired .
link your aadhaar with your csb bank account by clicking on the link below. you can also click the link to verify if your aadhaar details are already updated in your bank account .
the petition argued that fatima nagar cooperative bank was a “cooperative society and not a banking company” .
• the travancore banking enquiry committee' s report in 1930 noted that nearly 190 banks were found to be functioning in the state in that year! of the 190 banks, just six had paid - up capital of rs1 lakh or more. out of the 184 banks with capital less than rs1 lakh, there were 10 banks with paid - up capital less than rs1, 000. the largest bank was the travancore national bank with capital of rs1. 5 lakh and the smallest was catholic little flower bank, with paid up capital of just rs280 .
krishnamurthy has been associated with the bank for the past one year and was previously responsible for corporate banking, sme business and the integrated treasury operations of the bank as its head of wholesale banking and treasury .
from the day he took over the reins of federal bank five years ago, venugopalan was unhappy with its size. he had just stepped down as the boss of bank of india, which had 2, 600 branches, over 10, 000 employees and rs. 150, 000 crore of business. federal bank had about 420 branches, 6, 000 employees and rs. 23, 000 crore of business at that time. it was a step down. for federal bank employees, he was “a big banker in a small bank. ” so what? he would make the bank bigger. and acquire, if need be .
iype peter, a former federal bank employee who was elected to the csb board last year had quit in january, paving the way for s. santhanakrishnan, who quit the federal bank board, to join the csb board and hasten the merger process. federal bank currently holds a 4. 99% stake in csb .
the 10 percent rule effectively ended his ambition to control a bank in india. he had to give up .
that perception gains some credence from the fact that s. santhanakrishnan, a former federal bank director, now sits on csb’s board. a chartered accountant, he founded his firm sridhar & santhanam in 1977. a highly networked professional, he went to the board of federal bank when icici bank had a stake in it. he was with venugopalan as he grew it “from a small, regional kerala bank to a good private sector bank. ” he was a votary of the merger, and it’s widely believed he moved to the board of csb to facilitate the merger, and make the transition easier. he was elected as the chairman of the bank recently (rbi approval is pending) .
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the bank had earlier planned to sell 15 per cent stake to a single investor, aif capital development of hong kong .
if a merger becomes inevitable, his resort would be the courts. litigants in tamilnad mercantile bank, another community bank based in tamil nadu, succeeded in stalling annual shareholder meetings for seven years and stopped board members from taking over for two years .
exp: min 3 years experience in audit and inspection of bank branches / offices. knowledge of' credit' is essential .
the rbi did not approve this, contending that maximum shareholding by a private equity investor in a bank should be up to 5 per cent. the bank later sold aif 5 per cent. gartmore and siguler guff got 4. 5 per cent each .
it is for the first time that the rbi granting clearance for a bank to sell 51 per cent of its stake to a single private investor .
not many in india have heard of chansrichawla, a media - shy third - generation non - residend indian based in thailand. the affable sikh held 24. 5 percent stake in the bank. but given that indian law doesn’t allow an investor to hold more than 10 percent in a bank, he sold 14. 5 percent to 15 investors from india and abroad. this followed the lack of a deal in his talks with federal bank .
addressing a press conference later, members of the csb protection committee alleged they were manhandled by the “police, a section of bank employees and goondas” .
csb has also formed a three - member board committee to conduct due diligence and that the process was ongoing, he added. m. venugopalan, managing director of federal bank, had earlier said that his bank was open to having a say in the affairs of csb keeping in mind the possible
mr. chandy held the post of chairman of fatima nagar cooperative bank. he filed a petition in the thrissur munsiff court challenging the rejection of his nomination .
as for federal bank, one opportunity may have passed, but the doors aren’t entirely closed. chansrichawla’s last minute deal is yet to be approved, there is anantharaman with his 12 percent stake that could still be targeted and at least some csb backers may prefer to let a local bank take it over than an unknown investor .
in addition to these, the bank also offers loans and advances for nris who wish to set up business and commercial bases in india. some of them are :
a csb board member said on condition of anonymity that the new board was unanimously in favour of a merger with federal bank. however, the proposal would have to officially come from the federal bank. “with the new board at csb now all in favour of a merger, federal may now consider hastening things, ” he added .
the csb protection committee, patronised by the thrissur archdiocese, said it was against any move by nris to take over the csb because the church had contributed to the bank’s growth .
“we welcome the appointment of mr. anand krishnamurthy as the managing director & ceo of the bank. as md & ceo, mr. anand will continue to focus on initiatives to transform ourselves into a full service contemporary bank, ” said s. santhanakrishnan, part - time chairman of, csb. krishnamurthy replaced rakesh bhatia who had quit earlier this year citing personal reason. after this, the board of directors had sent a panel of three names to reserve bank of india out of which they had maintained that krishnamurthy was the first choice .
most of these banks turned out to be unstable and had to be closed. kerala was home to two of the largest and most controversial banking failures in indian history. the first was the travancore and quilon bank in 1938 and the other was the palai central bank. these banking shocks (along with other shocks like partition) created enormous turbulence in kerala’s banks .
meanwhile, the task before iswardas is to make investors see that the value of csb shares keep rising on the back of robust growth. “it’s not about size, ” iswardas says, “size of the bank comes second. i am looking at what the bank’s strengths are, and how best it can be used. if i do that, growth should follow naturally. ”
it’s a tough task: what csb plans to add in the next two years, state bank of india adds in a month. it’s ambitious, admits iswardas. “but look at our recent record. we managed to increase our advances by rs. 1, 250 crore in the last three to four months. ” can he grow the bank so fast when the industry itself has slowed down? a deutsche bank report says that loan growth is unlikely to scale previous peaks, even though it’s improving. public sector banks have reduced their targets, it points out .
before the board approved the qip, csb was looking to sell 51% stake to fairfax but the deal did not go through since the bank felt the offer was too low. according to another person familiar with the development who spoke under condition of anonymity, vallabh bhansali, chairman of enam group on 23 may picked up a nearly 4% stake in the bank at a valuation of rs160 per share, a 30% premium to csb’s rs123. 5 per share book value at the end of march. this also values the bank at around rs1, 295 crore .
naturally, there has been no dearth of suitors. just 80 kilometres from iswardas’ office sits m. venugopalan, ceo of federal bank. this larger country cousin of csb has been trying to acquire it for the past two years in a bid to become the dominant bank in kerala. it bought a 5 percent stake and waited for a larger stake. it found a heaven - sent opportunity when the reserve bank of india set a march 31, 2010 deadline for csb’s largest shareholder, sura chansrichawla, to bring down his 24. 5 percent stake to less than 10 percent. here was a shareholder under compulsion to sell and a buyer eager to lap it up. for a while, it almost looked like csb would become an apple in federal bank’s basket .
t. s. anantharaman, another board member and a shareholder in the bank, says, for the investors, it’s a question of price. “they would like to see some return on their investments. ”
the bank plans to raise money through a qualified institutional placement (qip), where listed companies sell shares, fully and partly convertible debentures, or any security other than convertible warrants, to a qualified institutional buyer .
to this day, venugopalan insists that the logic for the merger holds good. despite chansrichawla’s sale of stake to a new set of investors, federal bank hasn’t walked away from csb. it retains its 5 percent stake .
for chansrichawla, this was not the way things were supposed to go. he came here in the 1990s, looking at investment opportunities. banking was high up on chansrichawla’s priority list. a generation earlier, his family tried to get hold of a bank (bank of ayudhia) in thailand, but failed. as thai economy became more liberal, it was left to his generation to enter and expand his family’s interest in banking, finance and insurance .
the private equity infusion was to take the csb’s net worth beyond the reserve bank of india’s minimum requirement of rs. 300 crore. the csb had only rs. 229. 39 crore in net worth in 2006 - 07 .
the basis of the exception, in the case of csb, is the need to ensure adequate capital availability for turning around the struggling bank. the deal assumes significance considering the 21 - year - long quest for control of csb .
in a rare study which looks at the history of one of the thrissur banks—south indian bank—m. k. das and thomas e. m. (a southern odyssey: the story of south indian bank, 2014) analyse some of the reasons for trichur emerging as a banking centre. they say towns like cochin or mattancherry became important commercial centres due to favourable geography leading to trading opportunities in these towns. however, trichur emerged as a trading town because of state patronage .
a few months ago, mint on sunday editor sidin vadukut wrote about a visit to his home town of thrissur for his younger sister' s wedding. he mentioned that he met a neighbour who was proud that his daughter had recently joined a bank .
as if this wasn’t enough, a three - way stalemate has just emerged showing that the battle for csb is far from over. chansrichawla, who was talking to federal bank to sell his stake, went ahead and sold it to an entirely new set of investors .
recently, csb had filed for an initial public offering for rs 400 crore. apart from csb, rbl has also filed for an ipo. both the lenders have been advised by the reserve bank of india over the past few years to gear up for an ipo .
25 crore. in addition to the domestic branches, there are around 5 nri branches of the bank as well as 5 industrial branches, 5 ssi branches and 4 service branches. all these branches work in coordination with each other and offer the high class facilities and services .
a good analysis. everyone' s prayers must be with iswardas. one point we should note: majority of the directors on the board neither have any in depth idea about the business nor the culture of the bank. since the large shareholders dominate the board, their personal interest in selling their holding at a high price takes prominence over the growth of the bank. this is the source of the problem for any ceo. in fact mr. chansrichawla' s representatives (direct and indirect) are more on the board despite rbi' s clear instructions against .
here comes the twist. the share transfer is yet to be cleared by csb’s board. the rbi asked the bank to check if these 15 investors were acting in concert. the apparent implication was that if they belonged to one group, their combined stake would again violate the law .
venugopalan was ready to pay the price for strategic value. he offered a share swap in august 2009 under which shareholders of csb were to get 1. 9 shares of federal bank for every share they held. this valued csb at rs. 700 crore. the deal looked almost done .
csb chairman s santhanakrishnan said fairfax india would invest '1, 000 crore in the bank, and that the deal is likely to be closed by march 2017. he said csb was not worried about fairfax acquiring majority stake, because the canadian firm would have voting right of only 15 per cent .
as the bank’s 86th annual general body meeting began here this morning, the csb protection committee demanded its adjournment citing sections 179 (1) and 180 of the companies act, 1956, for alleged rejection of proxies, improper verification of documents / signatures and having not allowed representatives of the committee to scrutinise proxies .
indian financial system code (ifsc). it is used for electronic payment applications like real time gross settlement (rtgs), national electronic funds transfer (neft), immediate payment service, an interbank electronic instant mobile money transfer service (imps), and centralised funds management system (cfms) developed by reserve bank of india (rbi). code has eleven characters
alpha numeric
in nature. first four characters represent bank, fifth character is default
0
left for future use and last six characters represent branch. micr code: magnetic ink character recognition as printed on cheque book to facilitate the processing of cheques .
while in opposite camps, iswardas and venugopalan have one thing in common. both have to struggle with their respective board of directors that may not always agree with their views. the csb board will approve a deal at the right price, while federal bank’s board won’t allow venugopalan to pay as much as he was willing to .
“as part of the terms of the deal, the rbi has sought a five - year lock - in for fairfax, and asked the firm to reduce its holding in the bank to 15 per cent in 12 years, ” said sources. “normally, it takes at least three - four years for the turnaround. the five - year lock - in has been fixed for certainty in this regard. a valuation exercise will commence shortly to determine value of the unlisted entity, ” added the sources, but did not specify any timeframe for the process. it is learnt that the bank would be issuing fresh shares to fairfax, which has substantial holdings in diversified financial firm iifl and the bangalore international airport .
meanwhile, csb would look at industrial clusters to tap the sme business. iswardas has asked rbi for permission to open 35 more branches. and for the first time, the bank would participate in campus recruitments. the plan is to touch rs. 19, 000 crore in deposits plus loans by 2011, and rs. 30, 000 crore by 2012 .
iswardas has divided the branches into three categories (rural, urban and semi - urban) and has given each of them a focus area (retail, corporate and small & medium enterprises, respectively). he set up a credit committee comprising of zonal and general managers to make decision - making faster. the 90 - year - old bank has several third generation customers, and it would try to deepen the ties .
at the time of bank nationalization in 1969, there were 72 banks that had managed to survive in india. of these banks, nine were from kerala. and of these nine, four were scheduled banks and the other five non - scheduled banks. more importantly, seven of the nine banks were from the erstwhile cochin state and within these seven banks, four were from trichur (the anglicized name for thrissur; i will use both) .
disclaimer: - we have tried our best to keep the latest information updated as available from rbi, users are requested to confirm information with the respective bank before using the information provided. the author reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect, will therefore be rejected .
a few things are obviously missed out here. it must be noted that it is through supreme court' s intervention and its order chawlas got the approval which was pending for a long time after the rbi declined to acknowledge the transfer. chawlas are not known to manage any business well in their own country and the bank they were having control in thailand was taken over by the government. it is largely believed that santana krishnan, venugopalan and chawlas pushed the merger proposal for their personal interest rather with larger objective of increasing shareholder value at both banks .
the next question: how did these banks help thrissur and kerala? one way to assess this is to see the branch network of these banks in kerala. in 1970, kerala had 642 bank branches out of which 60% were from kerala - based banks. within the 60% , thrissur - based banks constituted 22% of the total branches. in terms of population per branch, kerala had 33, 251 people per branch, which was the third - lowest amidst states after gujarat and punjab. the national average was 60, 859 people per branch .
federal bank’s inherent growth must be some consolation to venugopalan. the net worth has risen to rs. 4, 000 crore. the branch network is up to 670 from 420. but it could have been much better with csb in the bag. he has set a goal to reach rs. 100, 000 crore in total business and a network of 1, 000 branches by 2011. “last two years were difficult because of slowdown in the economy and there was a set back. we will anyway work towards the goal. ” the target did not include business through any acquisition. “that would have been a bonus, ” he says .
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fairbridge is a wholly - owned subsidiary of canadian billionaire prem watsa - owned fairfax financial holdings .
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mint reported on 25 july that the private sector lender was considering various fund - raising options including a qip to raise short - term capital. it was even reconsidering a share sale, three years after it had filed a draft red herring prospectus .
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but outsiders, sure as hell, are interested in coming in. csb has built an exclusive franchise in kerala with total business of rs. 10, 000 crore and 363 branches, reaching virtually every nook and corner of the malayalam country. for banks and businessmen looking to dominate the financial sector of the state that gets the highest level of foreign remittances in india, it is a tempting buy .
while further events have put the deal in a knotty situation, names of other indian businesses and non - banking financial companies constantly crop up as potential acquirers of csb. its star - studded shareholders list includes the likes of engineering conglomerate larsen & toubro .
with none of the three sides willing to yield an inch, a game of patience has begun. the big question is, who will blink first .
but when venugopalan took it to his board, the directors shot it down. they thought the price was too high. they got kpmg to do another valuation which put csb at rs. 400 crore. csb shareholders didn’t agree. the deal got stuck in the crevice between expectation and offer .
however, santhanakrishnan says csb has the potential to grow fast by itself. soon, it would get ready to raise money from the market, even though it’s too early to say which route it would take. he declined to comment on other options .
the committee had been working towards buying the shares back from chansrichawla. the church had commitment of rs. 250 crore from individual investors, chandy says. but, again price would have been the issue .
he will have a tough time competing with bigger banks, which can afford to offer lower rates for corporate clients. his growth plans also assume business from new branches in new markets, where he wouldn’t have the advantages he has in kerala (namely, loyal customers) and he will also have to compete with banks that are already entrenched in those markets. some of the smes among his target segment are export driven, and growth is unlikely to pick up on that front. that leaves him with retail customers, a segment that’s doing well, but the competition there is increasing not just from nbfcs but also from bigger banks .
he now has to convince prospective investors that he can keep the momentum. that will be a bigger challenge .
venugopalan, iswardas, chansriwala. three determined warriors. three different agendas. in the land where apostle st. thomas set foot 2, 000 years ago and the country’s first mosque opened in the 7th century, it remains to be seen whose prayers will be answered .
( this story appears in the 30 april, 2010 issue of forbes india. you can buy our tablet version from urltoken. to visit our archives, click here. )
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but not mentally prepared to .
this piqued my curiosity. i asked the author whether the woman had joined one of the thrissur firms, as i knew the region is home to quite a few local banks. he responded by asking why i don’t write about the same—and here we are .
even before we discuss the histories of these individual banks, we need to discuss the history of banking in kerala. it is intriguing to unearth how financial intermediation has existed in this part of the world much before banks came into being .
edith jemima simcox (primitive civilizations or outlines of the history ownership in archaic communities, 1894), in a remarkable account on primitive civilizations, covers the region of malabar along with other regions. she mentions that “the dravidian kuri, or lottery, is said to have been handed down from very ancient times, and it is still commonly resorted to by anyone desiring to raise a sum of money for some special purpose, such as a daughter’s marriage”. the second volume of the same book covers china, where she notes very similar arrangements were used to raise capital, prompting the author to add, “the resemblance to the dravidian kuri, or lotteries, is obvious, and the institution in china may easily be as ancient as the characteristic form of mortgage also shared with the people of malabar. ”
these kuris (more popularly known as chit funds today) evolved for over a thousand years and are perhaps the oldest forms of financial intermediation. they started as the malabar region’s engagement in the spice trade over the centuries lead to the monetization of the economy. a mechanism was needed to transfer funds to those who needed it—as alluded to by simcox. this led to development of the kuri system, where members got funds on a rotation basis. in the absence of collateral, kuri was an interesting way to transfer funds from surplus units to deficit units, which is seen as a major role of financial system as well .
w. e. preston, who was member of royal commission on indian currency and finance (1926), noted “... it may be accepted that a system of banking that was eminently suited to india’s then requirements was in force in that country many centuries before the science of banking became an accomplished fact in england. ”
coming back to our topic, we zoom into the early 20th century, when indians were establishing joint stock banks in different parts of the country. under british india, the state of kerala as we know it today was divided into three parts: malabar in the north, cochin in the centre and travancore in the south. malabar came under the madras presidency and the other two were princely states .
within these three regions, a large number of banks mushroomed, most of them offshoots of existing kuri funds. there are multiple sources telling us about the high banking concentration in these three regions :
• the madras banking enquiry committee (1930) noted that there were around 66 banks in the entire presidency, with 32 of them in the malabar region. again, most of these banks were small .
• there was no separate committee to study banking in cochin. however, the report of the travancore - cochin banking enquiry commission (1956) noted that the princely state had 155 banks in 1936, which declined to 109 in 1939 and to 68 in 1954. the commission reported an even larger numbers of banks in travancore: 274 in 1932 - 33, which declined to 85 in 1954. whatever the sources of data, one thing is clear: these regions just had an amazingly high birth rate and death rate of banks .
out of the nearly 1, 700 banks that closed in the country in the period between 1913 and 1970, nearly 370 banks were from the kerala region. this excludes some of the malabar banks, which were counted as banks that closed in the madras presidency .
the sheer longevity of these banks is quite significant and demands adequate research. they remained small banks serving the hinterlands of kerala. in 1969, the nine kerala banks comprised just 1. 8% of total deposits mobilized by all banks .
the next question is, why trichur? the cochin - travancore banking commission' s report noted that in cochin “most of the banks were largely centred in trichur, a commercial town with extensive rural areas lying all round which had also their banks” .
they highlight how sakthan thampuran, who was the king of cochin between 1751 and 1805, shifted the capital from mattancherry to trichur. they cite the following reasons :
• both the dutch and british had bases at mattancherry and were warring for supremacy. sakthan did not want to take sides and shifted base to thrissur .
• the other reason was the central location of thrissur, which made governance easier in times where connectivity was poor .
• the third reason was strategic. thrissur historically served as a gateway for enemy armies, whether they were the zamorins of calicut or hyder ali / tippu sultan. by shifting the base, he revealed the military strategist in him .
with the shifting of the political base, economic activity too began to shift towards thrissur. the king promoted state trading in commodities, taking a cue from european traders. he built a small fleet of ships which he rented to private players, a forerunner to today’s coastal shipping activity. he also realized that many towns and villages of the state had product - specific markets. he ensured the prosperity of these markets by appointing officers to oversee the problems .
given this policy push, thrissur gradually evolved into a commercial centre. thus, as joint stock banks started thronging the region, thrissur became the default choice for most of promoters .
in 1972, when first district - wise banking data was released, there were 70 banked centres in thrissur district, the eighth - highest in the country. more importantly, most of these banked centres were small rural centres with branches of local thrissur banks. there were 133 functioning offices in the district, which was 17th - highest among all the districts .
in terms of total deposits and credit volumes, the district does not fare as well, given the banks were mainly catering to the small depositor and borrower. however, in terms of number of deposit accounts and credit accounts, the tally is impressive. the number of credit accounts was 118, 000, 10th - highest in the country (three districts from kerala were in the top 10), whereas the number of deposit accounts was around 240, 000, making it 36th - highest in the country. the number of accounts again highlights that thrissur banks mainly catered to small customers .
apart from these inclusion parameters, these banks also provided employment opportunities to local people. most of them were community banks as their names indicate, whose initial workforce mainly comprised members of their own communities .
after reading so much about banks in thrissur, and poring over the data, one wonders just how many people know of its contribution to indian banking history .
and it' s not just about banks. one of the better known nbfcs (non - banking finance companies) —mannapuram gold loan—also started in thrissur in 1949. not to mention the fact that it has become a hub for several jewellery companies—such as kalyan jewellers—which are now beginning to expand their footprint across the country. gold and banking are, in fact, intrinsically connected as most of these banks lent against gold as collateral. moreover, it is not just about the past: one of the 10 small finance banks—esaf—started its journey in thrissur and is now headquartered in chennai .
there is so much to learn and understand about thrissur’s emergence and sustenance as a financial hub over a small scale. i have barely scratched the surface and would be delighted to learn from those who know much more about banking in the region.
the catholic syrian bank limited ( csb ) is an indian private sector bank with its headquarters at thrissur , kerala , india . it is one of the oldest banks in india . the bank has a network of over 420 branches and more than 240 atms across india . 
the catholic syrian bank limited (csb) is an indian private sector bank with its headquarters at thrissur, kerala, india. it is one of the oldest banks in india. the bank has a network of over 420 branches and more than 240 atms across india.
the catholic syrian bank limited (csb) is an indian private sector bank with its headquarters at thrissur, kerala, india. it is one of the oldest banks in india. the bank has a network of over 420 branches and more than 240 atms across india.