With the Swadeshi Movement of early 20th century as its base, Catholic Syrian Bank was incorporated on 26th November 1920, in the Thrissur district of Kerala. The bank commenced its operations on 1st January 1921, with an authorized capital of Rs. 5 lakhs and a paid up capital of Rs. 45270. For the first two decades after its foundation, the bank concentrated solely on Kerala. Following the crash of Travancore National Quilon Bank in 1938 and Palai Central Bank in 1960, many of the small-scale banks came on the verge of collapsing, laying down the path of consolidation, through mergers and acquisitions.

It was in the decade of 1960 only, more specifically in 1964-65, that Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd took over the liabilities and assets of five small/medium sized banks in Kerala, taking the very first step towards expansion. In August 1969, the bank attained the distinction of being included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934. Six years later, in the year 1975, with its total Deposits crossing the mark of Rs.25 crores, the bank attained the status of "A" Class Scheduled Bank.

As Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd started moving on the path of success, a need was felt to providing training to the staff, which in turn resulted in the setting up of a Training College, in 1975. The very same year, the bank entered the field of Foreign Exchange. Soon, Data processing system was introduced in the bank and by November 1975, it has started using IBM Data processing machines for reconciliation of inter-branch accounts. The decade of 1970 also saw Catholic Syrian Bank opening new branches, with emphasis on remote rural belts.

Soon, the bank started flouting special schemes for catering to the credit needs of small scale industries, road transport operators, agriculturists and other self employed entrepreneurs. Even today, around 75 percent of the bank's clientele belongs to small and economically weaker strata of the society. At the same time, around 80 percent of its branches are in rural and semi- urban areas. At present, the bank is making investments in money market and capital market instruments and also trying to increase its market share of corporate finance.

Branches, ATMs & Financial Highlights
Right now, the Catholic Syrian Bank boasts of a network of 363 branches and 1 extension counter, including NRI/SSI/Industrial Finance and Service branches. There are as many as 124 ATM centers of the bank, throughout India. It is also in the process of expanding the branches as well as ATM counters, in the near future. As of 2007-08, the bank had Capital & Reserves of 305.16 crore, Deposits of 5317.62 crore, Advances of 3313.56 crore and Investments of 1819.43 crore. Its capital adequacy ratio was 10.87 percent.
 

Products & Services

• Insurance
• Deposits
• Advances
• RTGS NEFT
• International Money Transfer
• NRI Services