Vijaya Bank was established in 1932 in Mangalore, Karnataka with the objective to promote banking among the farming community of South Kannada district. The bank became a scheduled bank in the year 1958. It grew steadily into a large all India bank by merging with 9 smaller banks during 1963-68. The bank was nationalised in 1980. All of the bank`s 923 branches have been computerised covering 98.5% of its total business. Besides this, the bank has also installed ATMs at 128 of its branches, out of which 127 are networked. During the financial year 2005-2006, the bank opened 13 Branches, of which 2 are specialized commercial & personalized banking branches and one a SSI branch. The bank has a strong presence in the fast growing southern states.
Its business activities are diversified and encompass merchant banking, credit cards, ATMs, housing finance, fast collection services, etc. Vijaya Bank plans to focus on farm and retail lending to push up business. The bank did a gross business of Rs 447 billion in the financial year 2005-06 as against target of Rs 470 billion. The shortfall in business was mainly on account of the inability to raise low-cost deposits. To boost overseas operations and to NRIs, the bank is opening two new representative offices in Dubai and Hong Kong.
