The Union Bank (1828)

The Union Bank
Company type	Private sector
Industry	Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets and allied industries
Founded	1 April 1828 as The Union Bank
Founder	Dwarkanath Tagore
Defunct	31 March 1848
Fate	Defunct
Headquarters	Calcutta, India
Number of locations	Bengal Presidency
Area served	India
Key people	Dwarkanath Tagore
Products	Deposits, Personal Banking Schemes, C & I Banking Schemes, Agri Banking Schemes, SME Banking Schemes
Services	Banking, Trade Finance

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.^[1]

History

Founding

In the 19th century India, Prince Dwarkanath Tagore owned his own trading firm Carr, Tagore and Company. He then separated the financial activities of his firm into a separate banking company. As a result, the Union Bank was founded in 1828.^[2] The bank was formed by the merger of two other banks: The Commercial Bank and The Calcutta Bank.^[3]^[4]

Dwarkanath was the very first Indian to become a director of an Indian bank. All of the previous Indian banks had European directors and founders.^[5] Dwarkanath was assisted by his Parsi friend Rustomjee Cowasjee, a notable businessman.^[6]

The bank collapsed in 1848.^[7]

References

^ "Reserve Bank of India - Museum". rbi.org.in. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^ "Dwarakanath Tagore - India's Industrious Pioneer". 9 April 2018. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^ "Indian banking's chequered history". Gateway House. 3 May 2018. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^ N, Shivam (10 June 2016). "History of the Paper Currency in India: 3 Periods". Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^ "Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1864); Rabindranath's grandfather". The Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies. 5 February 2019. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^ "A friend of Dwarkanath Tagore, this Parsi Babu loved Calcutta". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^ Paul, Aniek (22 August 2015). "The chequered history of Kolkata's banks". mint. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.