Saga of Four Decades

Established 40 years ago, The Commercial Bank Employees’ Co-operative Bank came into existence on 25th April 1969 with an initial paid up capital of Rs. 500/- from 50 members at the initiative of the trios of Kottayam N. P. Raj, Joseph Anjilithara and K. M. Sunny.

The first general body held on 07-06-1969 elected Sri. K. Thomas (Central Bank of India) as President and Sri K M Sunny as Secretary. In its inception days, the bank functioned in the corner of the clearing house of State Bank of Travancore, Kottayam (main branch) with a table, two chairs and a cupboard.

During the last 40 years, we have become the dearest friend and of course an indispensable part of the daily life of the employees of the commercial banks in the District. With diversified and attractive schemes on both fronts –deposit as well as loans we have always stayed with our members. In the onward march from the corner of the clearing house of SBT, through the rented shelters in Ottamangalam building (Temple road) and Keralapuram building (Sreenivasa Iyer Road), we have settled down in our own prestigious 3 storied elegant building of worth several crores on 20.01.2001. Now our Auditoriums (Bank employees hall -150 seats, Mini hall -50 seats and Roof Top hall -200 seats) are the prominent and most sought after places in the town for any function. At present the banks deposits has crossed the magic figure of 12 crores, which is unimaginable for a vast majority of employee’s co-operative initiatives.

The banks first loan was paid to its 3 members in the year of inception which was Rs.320/- each with the help of District Co-operative Bank .Now we give loans up to 5 lakhs to the members and more over we are able to process and dispense the loan application every week since we are running at our own funds.

We have chitties (GDCS) worth 21 lakhs ranging from Rs. 25000/- to 5 lac, in which nearly 1000 bank employees are constituents. Very soon we will be launching a chitty of 10 lac with a plan to inculcate a new culture in the saving arena. This will also relieve bank employees from the habit and practice of deficit financing. The Bank also introduced two major attractions as below :

Reduced Thalayal commission to 4%
Chitty proceeds to be paid on the same day of auction.

We have been continuously paying dividend to our members throughout the period and recently amended our bye –law for incorporating the provision to pay 20% dividend to the share holders.

Introduction of self working insurance coverage for the ordinary loan for providing relief to the bereaved family and guarantors and introducing ONAM KIT in the market at the festival time were widely welcomed and appreciated.

We are very much thankful to the nearly 3000 members spread all over the country who have been continuously patronizing us for the last 4 decades ranging from part –time sweepers to the General Managers of various Banks. We also remember the great visionaries like N. P. Raj, P.R. Krishnapillai, P. K. Markose, A.Goplanan Nair, N. S. Muraleedharan Nair and many others who have left us.