History of Oriental Bank of Commerce(OBC)

Oriental Bank of Commerce is an India-based bank established in Lahore (then the city of British India, and currently in Pakistan), is one of the public sector banks in India.

History

Rai Bahadur Lala Sohan Lal, the first Chairman of the Bank, founded OBC in 1943 in Lahore. Within four years of its coming into existence,OBC had to face Partition. The bank had to close down its branches in the newly formed Pakistan and shift its registered office from Lahore to Amritsar. Lala Karam Chand Thapar, the then Chairman of the Bank, in a unique gesture honoured the commitments made to the depositors from Pakistan and paid every rupee to its departing customers.

The Bank has witnessed many ups and downs since its establishment. The period of 1970-76 is said to be the most challenging phase in the history of the Bank. At one time profit plummeted to ₹175, that prompted the owner of the bank, the Thapar House, to sell / close the bank. Then employees and leaders of the Bank came forward to rescue the Bank. The owners were moved and had to change their decision of selling the bank and in turn they decided to improve the position of the bank with the active cooperation and support of all the employees. Their efforts bore fruits and performance of the bank improved significantly. This was the turning point in the history of the bank.

The bank was nationalised on 15 April 1980. At that time OBC ranked 19th among the 20 nationalised banks.

In 1997, OBC acquired two banks: Bari Doab Bank and Punjab Cooperative Bank. The acquisition of these two banks brought with it no additional branches.

The bank has progressed on several fronts, crossing the Business Mix mark of ₹2 lac crores as on 31 March 2010 making it the seventh largest Public Sector Bank in India.

On 14 August 2004, OBC amalgamated Global Trust Bank (GTB). GTB was a leading private sector bank in India that was associated with various financial discrepancies leading to a moratorium being imposed by RBI shortly before it merged into OBC. The acquisition brought with it 103 branches, which increased OBC's branch total to 1092.

The current Chairpersons (CMD) of the bank is Animesh Chauhan(From Dec 2014).

The bank offers a wide range of banking products and services such as deposit accounts, loans, debit cards, credit cards (with tie up with SBI), Insurance products, ATMs, Internet banking, Mobile Banking, Self-banking halls, call centre, etc.

The Bank has launched yet another people's participation in the planning process at grass root level essentially to tackle the maladies of poverty. The Grameen Projects venture aims to alleviate poverty plus identify the reasons responsible for the failure or success.

OBC is already implementing a GRAMEEN PROJECT in Dehradun District (UK) and Hanumangarh District (Rajasthan). Formulated on the pattern of the Bangladesh Grameen Bank, the Scheme has a unique feature of disbursing small loans ranging from ₹75 (~US $1.5) onwards. The beneficiaries of the Grameen Project are mostly women.The Bank is engaged in providing training to rural folk in using locally available raw material to produce pickles, jams etc. This has provided self-employment and augmented income levels thus reforming lives of rural folk and encouraging cottage industries in rural areas.

OBC launched yet another unique scheme christened 'The Comprehensive Village Development Programme' on the auspicious day of Baisakhi, the 13th of April 1997 at three villages in Punjab namely Rurki Kalan (Distt. Sangrur), Raje Majra (Distt. Ropar) and Khaira Majha (Distt. Jaladhar) and two villages in Haryana, namely Khunga (Distt. Jind) and Narwal (Distt. Kaithal). The pilot launch was a great success. Emboldened by the success, Bank extended the programme to more villages. At present, it covers 15 villages; 10 in Punjab, 4 in Haryana and 1 in Rajasthan. The programme focuses on providing a comprehensive and integrated package providing rural finance to the villagers with Village Development as its focus, thus contributing towards infrastructural development and augmentation of income for each farmer of the village. The Bank has implemented 14 point action plan for strengthening of credit delivery to women and has designated 5 branches as specialised branches for women entrepreneurs.

Tagline: Where every individual is commited

Products and services of Oriental Bank of Commerce

Oriental Bank of Commerce or, OBC offers a comprehensive range of products and services to its individual and institutional clients they are as follows:

# Deposit Schemes 

    1. ORIENTAL 500
    2. ORIENTAL 1000
    3. Orintal Double Term Deposit
    4. OBC Aadhar
    5. Flexi Fixed Deposit Scheme 
    6. Basic Banking Account
    7. Saving Accounts
    8. Current Account
    9. Term Deposit
  10. Tax Saving term Deposit 
  11. Variable Progressive Deposit
  12. Jeevan Sarathi For PH
  13. Pragati Deposit Deposit
  14. Unnati Deposit Scheme

# Loan    

   1. Loan Schemes for Minority Communities
    2. Housing Loan
    3. Car/Vehicle Loan Scheme
    4. Education Loan Scheme
    5. Personal Loan Scheme
    6. Loan to Doctors
    7. Loan to Professionals
    8. Clean Loan to Traders
    9. Loan to Defence Personnel
  10. Loan to SMEs
        a. Loan to SMEs
        b. Debt Restructuring scheme for SMEs
  11. Loan to Women
        a. Oriented Mahila Vikas Yojana
        b. Scheme for Professional &self Employed Women
        c. Scheme for Financing Working Women
  12. Other Loan Schemes
        a. Loan against Govt. Securities
        b. Agricalture Loan Scheme
             (1) Kishan Credit Card
             (2) Composite Credit Scheme for Agricultural Leading
             (3) Overdraft Facility to Farmers
             (4) Advance against warehouse Receipts to Farmers
             (5) Purchase of Land for Agriculture Purposes
             (6) Agriculture Clinic &Business Centers
             (7) Financing Two/Three Wheelers to Farmers
             (8) Scheme for Financing Commission Agents
             (9) Scheme for Financing Farmers for Purchase of Trucks & other
           (10) Scheme for Financing Farmers for Purchase of Second Hand Trucks & other
           (11) Scheme for purchase of Tractor
           (12) Scheme for  Financing Working capitalrequirement of cold storage
           (13) Scheme for  Financing Timbermechants & saw mills
           (14) Scheme for  purchase of Second Hand Tractor
           (15) Agricultural Loan against security of Gold Jewellery
        c. Laghu Udhami Credit Card
        d. Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro & Small Enterprises
        e. Swarojgar credit Card Scheme

# Services
    1. NRI Accounts
        a. Non Residence External Account
        b. Non Residence Ordinary Account
        c. Foregin Currency Non-Residence
        d. Residence Foregin Currency
    2. Premium Services
        a. Internet Banking
        b. R.T.G.S.
        c. N.E.F.T.
    3. Other Services
        a. ABSA
        b. DMAT Account
        c. Foreign Remittances
        d. Cash Managment Services

Head Office:

Plot No. 5, Institutional Area
Sector-32, Gurgaon - 122001
Telephone Nos.:
PBX board/ receiption numbers : 0124-4126200 and 0124-4126300

Toll Free Customer Care No.  : 1800-180-1235

Toll Customer Care No.         : 0120-2580001 

Website: www.obcindia.co.in