Punjab National Bank

Punjab National Bank (PNB) was founded in Lahore as an Indian joint-stock bank. It was uprooted by Partition in 1947 and is now one of India's largest public sector banks, still carrying the province's name.

Founding: By PNB's own account the bank was born on 19 May 1894, when its papers were registered under the Indian Companies Act, and opened for business on 12 April 1895 in a house in Anarkali Bazar, Lahore, the day before Baisakhi. Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia was its first chairman and Lala Harkishan Lal its first board secretary, and the first directors included Lala Lalchand, Kali Prosanna Roy, E.C. Jessawala and Lala Dholan Dass. Lala Lajpat Rai, urged on by Rai Mool Raj of the Arya Samaj, circulated a proposal for an Indian joint-stock bank, was the first to open an account and joined the board soon after.

Key moments:

• 31 March 1947: its officials decided to move the registered office from Lahore to Delhi. The Lahore High Court approved the transfer on 20 June 1947. PNB says it closed 92 offices in West Pakistan, about a third of its offices and 40 per cent of its deposits.
• 19 July 1969: the Government of India nationalised PNB with 13 other major banks.
• February 2018: PNB disclosed fraudulent transactions of up to about 1.77 billion US dollars, said to have been organised by Nirav Modi and linked companies.
• 1 April 2020: Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India merged into PNB, making it the second-largest public sector bank in India, according to Wikipedia.

Why it matters here: PNB is one of the Punjabi institutions that crossed the 1947 border. It still carries the province's name, and by its own figures it lost about a third of its offices and 40 per cent of its deposits in West Pakistan.