Punjab National Bank, also known as PNB, is an Indian public sector bank based in New Delhi. Founded in May 1894, the bank has 10,189 branches and 11,822 ATMs as of March 2025.
PNB has a banking subsidiary in the UK (PNB International Bank, with seven branches in the UK), as well as branches in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Dubai, and Kabul. It has representative offices in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Shanghai (China), Oslo (Norway), and Sydney (Australia). In Bhutan, it owns 51% of Druk PNB Bank, which has five branches. In Nepal, PNB owns 20% of Everest Bank, which has 122 branches. PNB also owns 41.64% of JSC (SB) PNB Bank in Kazakhstan, which has four branches.
History
Punjab National Bank is a Public Sector Undertakings in India (PSU) working under the Government of India regulated by the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. It was registered on 19 May 1894 under the Indian Companies Act, with its office in Anarkali Bazaar, in pre-independent India (present-day Pakistan). The founding board was drawn from different parts of India professing different faiths and of varying backgrounds, with the common objective of creating a truly national bank that would further the economic interest of the country. PNB's founders included several leaders of the Swadeshi movement such as, Dyal Singh Majithia and Lala Harkishen Lal, Lala Lalchand, Kali Prosanna Roy, E. C. Jessawala, Prabhu Dayal, Bakshi Jaishi Ram, and Lala Dholan Dass. Lala Lajpat Rai was actively associated with the management of the Bank in its early years. The board first met on 23 May 1894. After the Indo-Pak war of 1965, the government of Pakistan seized all the offices in Pakistan of Indian banks in September 1965. PNB also had one or more branches in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
The government of India (GOI) nationalised PNB and 13 other major commercial banks, on 19 July 1969. In 1976 or 1978, PNB opened a branch in London. some ten years later, in 1986, the Reserve Bank of India required PNB to transfer its London branch to State Bank of India after the branch was involved in a fraud scandal. That same year, 1986, PNB acquired Hindustan Commercial Bank (est. 1943) in a rescue. The acquisition added Hindustan's 142 branches to PNB's network. In 1993, PNB acquired New Bank of India, which the GOI had nationalised in 1980. In 1998 PNB set up a representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
In 2003, PNB took over Nedungadi Bank, the oldest private sector bank in Kerala. At the time of the merger with PNB, Nedungadi Bank's shares had zero value, with the result that its shareholders received no payment for their shares. PNB also opened a representative office in London. In 2004, PNB established a branch in Kabul, Afghanistan, a representative office in Shanghai, and another in Dubai. PNB also established an alliance with Everest Bank in Nepal that permits migrants to transfer funds easily between India and Everest Bank's 12 branches in Nepal. Currently, PNB owns 20% of Everest Bank. Two years later, PNB established PNBIL – Punjab National Bank (International) – in the UK, with two offices, one in London, and one in Southall. Since then it has opened more branches, this time in Leicester, Birmingham, Ilford, Wembley, and Wolverhampton. PNB also opened a branch in Hong Kong. In January 2009, PNB established a representative office in Oslo, Norway. PNB hopes to upgrade this to a branch in due course. In January 2010, PNB established a subsidiary in Bhutan. PNB owns 51% of Druk PNB Bank, which has branches in Thimphu, Phuntsholing, and Wangdue. Local investors own the remaining shares. Then on 1 May, PNB opened its branch in Dubai's financial center. PNB purchased a small minority stake in Kazakhstan-based JSC Danabank established on 20 October 1992 in Pavlodar. Within the year PNB increased its ownership till 84% of what has become JSC (SB) PNB, with its share currently decreased to 49%. The associate in Kazakhstan now called JSC Tengri Bank has branches in Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Karaganda, Pavlodar and Shymkent. September 2011: PNB opened a representative office in Sydney, Australia. December 2012: PNB signed an agreement with US based life Insurance company MetLife to acquire a 30% stake in MetLife's Indian affiliate MetLife India Limited. The company would be renamed PNB MetLife India Limited and PNB would sell MetLife's products in its branches.
Punjab National Bank Fraud Case, 2018
PNB disclosed in February 2018 that it detected fraudulent transactions of up to $1.77 billion.
Mergers and acquisitions
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers static-row-header-hash"
|-
! scope="col" | Acquisition date
! scope="col" | Company
! scope="col" | Location
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |
|-
| 1951
| Bharat Bank Ltd.
| New Delhi, India
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
| 1961
| Universal Bank of India
| Dalmianagar, Bihar, India
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
| 1962
| Indo-Commercial Bank
| India
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
| 1986
| Hindustan Commercial Bank
| India
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
| 1993
| New Bank of India
| New Delhi, India
|
|-
| 2003
| Nedungadi Bank
| Kozhikode, Kerala, India
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2020
| Oriental Bank of Commerce
| Gurgaon (Head Office)
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| United Bank of India
| Kolkata (Head Office)
|}
Amalgamation
On 30 August 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India would be merged with Punjab National Bank. The proposed merger would make Punjab National Bank the second largest public sector bank in the country with assets of and 11,437 branches. The Union Cabinet approved the merger on 4 March 2020. PNB announced that its board had approved the merger ratios the next day. Shareholders of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank will receive 1,150 shares and 121 shares of PNB, respectively, for every 1,000 shares of they hold. On 1 April 2020, the merger came into effect. Post-merger, all customers of other two merging banks are now treated as the customers of PNB.
Listings and shareholding
PNB's equity shares are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. It is a constituent of the Nifty 50 index at the NSE. , the shareholding structure of the bank is as follows.
{| class="wikitable"
!Shareholder
!Percentage
|-
|Promoters & Promoter Group
|73.15
|-
|Domestic institutional investors
|10.76
|-
|Foreign Institutional Investors
|5.51
|-
|Public & Other
|10.57
|}
Subsidiaries
thumb|A Punjab National Bank branch in the United Kingdom.
Domestic subsidiaries
Source:
- PNB Gilts Ltd (74.07%)
- PNB Investment Services Ltd (100%)
- PNB Insurance Broking Services Ltd (non functional under winding up)
- PNB Cards and Services Ltd (100%)
International subsidiaries
- PNB International Ltd UK (100%)
- Druk PNB Bank Ltd Bhutan (51%)
Domestic associates
- Assam Gramin Bank (35%)
- Bihar Gramin Bank (35%)
- Haryana Gramin Bank (35%)
- Himachal Pradesh Gramin Bank (35%)
- Manipur Rural Bank (35%)
- Punjab Gramin Bank (35%)
- Tripura Gramin Bank (35%)
- West Bengal Gramin Bank (35%)
- PNB Housing Finance Limited (28.10%)
- PNB MetLife India Insurance Company (23%)
International associates
- JSC Tengri Bank Kazakhstan (41.64%)
International joint venture
- Everest Bank Ltd Nepal (20.0249%)
Employees
As of 31 March 2025, the bank had 102,746 employees. As of 31 March 2019, it also had 1,722 employees with disabilities on the same date (2.43%). The average age of bank employees on the same date was 39 years. The bank reported the business of per employee and net profit of per employee during the FY 2012–13.
During the year 2018–19, PNB has also taken the initiative for donations to CM relief fund for Kerala and Kumbh Mela.