| Type | Private sector |
|---|---|
| Industry | Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets and allied industries |
| Founded | 1 April 1819 as The Commercial Bank (1819) |
| Defunct | 31 March 1828 |
| Fate | merged with The Calcutta Bank (1824) to form The Union Bank (1828) in 1828 |
| Headquarters | |
Number of locations | Bengal Presidency |
Area served | India |
| Products | Deposits, Personal Banking Schemes, C & I Banking Schemes, Agri Banking Schemes, SME Banking Schemes |
| Services | Banking, Trade Finance |
The Commercial Bank was a bank founded in the year 1819 in British India. The bank was the eleventh oldest bank in India. [1]
The bank was merged with The Calcutta Bank (1824) to form The Union Bank (1828) in 1828. Further, The Union Bank itself became defunct in 1848. [1]
The bank was established in 1819 by the British agency house of Mackintosh & Co. [2] [3]
The bank played a major role in the early economic history of East Bengal and Bangladesh. [4]
Although the bank was largely a private bank, it enjoyed patronage from the then government of India, the East India Company.[ citation needed ]
The bank was staffed by mostly British nationals who were drawn mainly from the East India Company.[ citation needed ]
The bank had most of its offices and branches in East Bengal, which is the present day Bangladesh.[ citation needed ]
The bank lasted in business for only nine years and was finally merged with The Calcutta Bank (1824) to form The Union Bank (1828) in 1828. In 1828, there was an economic crisis which forced a Bank run on the bank and precipitated the merger with The Calcutta Bank (1824) to form The Union Bank (1828) in 1828. [1] [5] [ unreliable source? ]
The bank also issued its own currency notes in its nine years of existence. [6] [ unreliable source? ] [7] [8]
The total value of the banknotes issued by the bank is estimated to be around Rupees 16 lakhs. [9] [ unreliable source? ]
The bank is notable for being the eleventh oldest bank in India. [1] It is also notable for being one of the first institutions in India to issue its own paper banknotes or currency notes. [7] [8] [3]
The ability of private banks to issue their own currency notes was taken away by The Paper Currency Act, 1861. [10] [11]
Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in payment of a debt extinguishes the debt. There is no obligation on the creditor to accept the tendered payment, but the act of tendering the payment in legal tender discharges the debt.
The Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for the control, issue and maintaining supply of the Indian rupee. It also manages the country's main payment systems and works to promote its economic development. Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran (BRBNM) is a specialised division of RBI through which it prints and mints Indian currency notes (INR) in four of its currency printing presses located in Nashik, Dewas, Mysore and Salboni. The RBI established the National Payments Corporation of India as one of its specialised division to regulate the payment and settlement systems in India. Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation was established by RBI as one of its specialised division for the purpose of providing insurance of deposits and guaranteeing of credit facilities to all Indian banks.
The Indian rupee is the official currency in the Republic of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 paise. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve Bank manages currency in India and derives its role in currency management on the basis of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
The pound was the currency of New Zealand from 1840 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Like the pound sterling, it was subdivided into 20 shillings each of 12 pence.
Commonwealth banknote-issuing institutions also British Empire Paper Currency Issuers comprises a list of public, private, state-owned banks and other government bodies and Currency Boards who issued legal tender: banknotes.
Ireland has issued its own trading banknotes for several centuries, both when the whole of Ireland was one legal entity, and following partition of the island into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Notes have been issued by individual banks and by state agencies of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Bangladesh is a developing country with an impoverished banking system, particularly in terms of the services and customer care provided by the government run banks. In recent times, private banks are trying to imitate the banking structure of the more developed countries, but this attempt is often foiled by inexpert or politically motivated government policies executed by the central bank of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank. The outcome is a banking system fostering corruption and illegal monetary activities/laundering etc. by the politically powerful and criminals, while at the same time making the attainment of services or the performance of international transactions difficult for the ordinary citizens, students studying abroad or through distance learning, general customers etc.
The Indian 1000-rupee banknote is an obsolete denomination of the Indian rupee. It was first introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in 1938 under British rule and subsequently demonetized in 1946. Post-independence, the denomination was re-introduced in 1954. In January 1978, all high-denomination banknotes of ₹1000, ₹5000, and ₹10000 were demonetized in order to curb unaccounted cash money.
The Revised Standard Reference Guide to Indian Paper Money is a 2012 book by Rezwan Razack and Kishore Jhunjhunwalla. The book is a comprehensive compilation of facts, milestones, and other details regarding paper money in India. It was published in India by Coins & Currencies. Kishore Jhunjhunwalla and Rezwan Razack are avid collectors of Indian currency. The book traces the evolution of Indian currency dating back to 1770. It captures the various nuances of modern-day currency as well as incidents that helped shape this sector over the years. The book is in its second edition—the first was authored by Jhunjhunwalla, whose collection was later purchased by Rezwan Razack. The revised edition was published after 10 years of research. The book was introduced to the public by Uma Shankar, Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India on 13 January 2012.
Bank of Hindostan (1770–1832), a now defunct bank, was the third oldest bank in India.
The paper money of the Qing dynasty was periodically used alongside a bimetallic coinage system of copper-alloy cash coins and silver sycees; paper money was used during different periods of Chinese history under the Qing dynasty, having acquired experiences from the prior Song, Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties which adopted paper money but where uncontrolled printing led to hyperinflation. During the youngest days of the Qing dynasty paper money was used but this was quickly abolished as the government sought not to repeat history for a fourth time; however, under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor, due to several large wars and rebellions, the Qing government was forced to issue paper money again.
The Currency Building is an early 19th-century building in the B. B. D. Bagh central business district of Kolkata in West Bengal, India. The building was originally built in 1833 to house the Calcutta branch of the Agra Bank. In 1868, it was converted for use by the Office of the Issue and Exchange of Government Currency, an office of the Controller of the Currency under the British Raj. From 1935 until 1937, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) used the building as its first central office. The building remained in use, and was used at one time by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) as a storehouse. Authorities decided to demolish it in 1994.
The General Bank of Bengal and Bihar was a bank founded in the year 1773 in British India. The bank was the fourth oldest bank in India. The bank became defunct March 31st, 1775.
The Bengal Bank was a bank founded in 1784 in British India. The bank was the fifth oldest bank in India.
The Union Bank was a bank founded in the year 1828 in British India by Prince Dwarkanath Tagore. The bank was the fourteenth oldest bank in India.
The Paper Currency Act, 1861 is an act in India dating from the British colonial rule, that is currently no longer in force.
Many European trading companies came to India during the 18th century. These trading companies set up private banks which issued paper currencies in Indian subcontinent first. But these notes were text-based. Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning first introduced paper currency in Indian subcontinent in 1861 officially.
The Calcutta Bank was a bank founded in the year 1824 in British India. The bank was the twelfth oldest bank in India.
The Bank of India was a bank founded in the year 1828 in British India. The bank was the thirteenth oldest bank in India. It closed down in 1829.
The Asiatic Bank (1804) was a bank founded in the year 1804 in British India. The bank was the ninth oldest bank in India.
