How it started
History
Mr. G D Birla, an eminent Indian industrialist, during the Quit India movement of 1942, conceived the idea of organising a commercial bank with Indian capital and management, and the United Commercial Bank Limited was incorporated to give shape to that idea. The bank was started with Calcutta as its head office with an issued capital of ₹2 crores, of which ₹1 crore was actually paid up. Birla was its chairman; the Board of Directors included eminent personalities of India drawn from many fields. The bank opened 14 branches simultaneously across India.
After World War II, United Commercial Bank opened several overseas branches. The first, in 1947, was in Rangoon. Branches in Singapore (1951), Hong Kong (March 1952), London (1953), and Malaysia followed. In 1963 the Burmese government nationalised United Commercial Bank's three branches there, which became People's Bank No. 6.
The Bank's Singapore Operations commenced on 21-April-1951 with the opening of the Singapore Main branch and subsequently Serangoon branch was opened in "Little India" on 07-March-1959. The international linkage from Singapore is supported by a large number of Indian branches network through the Integrated Treasury Branch, Mumbai. Other branches in India also provide international banking facilities through Authorised Branches of the bank.
This international network is further augmented by correspondent arrangements with leading Banks at all important world centres in various countries.
On 15-September-1967, Jalpaiguri Banking and Trading Corporation (JBTC) which had been established in Jalpaiguri in 1887 (or 1889; accounts differ), made a voluntary transfer of its assets and liabilities to United Commercial Bank. JBTC had only one office and specialised in lending against mortgages on tea gardens.
From Wikipedia’s article on UCO Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2