RBL Bank, formerly known as Ratnakar Bank, is an Indian private sector bank headquartered in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

and founded in 1943. It offers services across six verticals: corporate and institutional banking,

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with co ...

ing, branch and business banking, retail assets, development banking and

financial inclusion Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and service ...

, treasury and financial market operations.https://www.rblbank.com/about-us

History

On 6 August 1943, Ratnakar Bank was founded as a regional bank in Maharashtra with two branches in

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'. Kolhapur is k ...

and

Sangli Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks o ...

founded by Babgonda Bhujgonda Patil from Sangli and Gangappa Siddappa Chougule from Kolhapur. It mainly served

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Ban ...

(SMEs) and business merchants in the Kolhapur-Sangli belt. It was incorporated in

Kolhapur district Kolhapur district (Marathi pronunciation: olʱaːpuɾ is a district in the Maharashtra state of India. The city of Kolhapur is its district headquarter. It is situated near Panchaganga river. It is bordered by the Sangli district to the Nor ...

on 14 June 1943 as Ratnakar Bank Limited. In 1959, the bank was categorized as a

scheduled commercial bank Scheduled Banks in India refer to those banks which have been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in turn includes only those banks in this Schedule which satisfy the criteria laid down ...

as per the

Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 is the legislative act under which the Reserve Bank of India was formed. This act along with the Companies Act, which was amended in 1936, were meant to provide a framework for the supervision of banking firms in ...

. During this decade, it was referred to as an NH4 Bank. In 1970, it received a banking license from the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

(RBI). In July 2010, Vishwavir Ahuja became managing director and CEO of the bank. In August 2014, the name of the bank was changed to RBL Bank Limited.

Operations

As of March 2022, it has a network of 502 branches and 414 ATMs across 28 states and union territories. It has 9,257 employees.The Bank also has a network of 1418 business correspondent branches of which 870 business correspondent branches are managed by RBL Finserve Limited, a wholly owned business correspondent of the Bank. In 2016, the bank ran a financial literacy programme called Saksham in collaboration with CDC to provide education to 25,000 individuals and 300 villages in four districts of Madhya Pradesh. Another Saksham programme was run in Ahmedabad in 2013. In 2018, RBL Bank partnered with MoneyTap to launch India's first personal credit line based app. The same year in June, the company announced that it had raised its stake in microlender Swadhaar FinServe to 100 per cent.

Funding

The Bank has raised Rs. 8,600 crore of equity capital and Rs. 1500 crore of Basel III compliant Tier II debt from 2010 to date. The Bank counts Barings Private Equity Asia, British International Investment (formerly CDC Group), Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Asian Development Bank, HDFC.Ltd, ICICI prudential Life Insurance, Gaja Capital among others as its shareholders. Throughout the 2010s, RBL Bank reportedly raised a total of INR 4,000 crore from investors. It raised INR 700 crore in 2011, INR 376 crore in 2013, INR 328 crore in 2014 and INR 488 crore in 2016. In July 2017, RBL Bank received board approval to raise an additional INR 1680 crore. In December 2019, the company announced that it had raised INR 675 crore through preferential issue. Investors such as East Bridge Capital Master Fund and WF Asian Reconnaissance Fund participated. In August 2020, the company announced that it has raised INR 1566 crore through preferential issue. It was led by

Baring Private Equity Asia BPEA EQT (formerly known as Baring Private Equity Asia and BPEA) is an Asian private equity firm. Previously it was an affiliate of Barings Bank before becoming an independent firm. In 2022 it was acquired by EQT Partners to act as its Asian inv ...

where as other investors included ICICI Prudential Life, CDC Group and local private equity company Gaja Capital.

Management rejig

The search committee constituted to identify the MD & CEO for the Bank ran an exhaustive process along with Egon Zehnder and recommended the name of Mr. R Subramaniakumar, a highly capable and a meritorious person for the job.

Awards and recognition

*Best Bank for Digital solutions - Asiamoney Best Bank Awards 2022 by

Euromoney ''Euromoney'' is an English-language monthly magazine focused on business and finance. First published in 1969, it is the flagship production of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc. History and profile ''Euromoney'' was first published in 19 ...

*Best Bank for Microfinance - Asiamoney Best Bank Awards 2019 by

*Best Small Bank, Business Today – Money Today Financial Awards 2019 *Best Self Service Banking Initiative, Application - The Asian Banker Financial Technology Innovation Awards by The Asian Banker

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:RBL bank Private sector banks in India Banks based in Mumbai Financial services companies based in Mumbai Banks established in 1943 Indian brands Indian companies established in 1943 Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange