Bank of Madura

Bank of Madurai was a massive Tamil Nadu based bank established in 1943 by Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar.[1] It acquired Chettinad Mercantile Bank (est. 1933) and Illanji Bank (est. 1904) throughout the course of the 1960s. The Bank of Madura was a Chettiar bank with a large customer base of over 2 million customers and a network of more than 280 branches and 40+ ATM centres spread across around 100 cities in India. The bank merged with ICICI Bank Limited, under Section 44A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, under the leadership of Chairman K.M. Thiagarajan. The Bank had roughly 44 billion INR in assets at the time of the merger, not accounting for inflation.[1] The Reserve Bank of India approved the merger effective 10 March 2001. It was headquartered at Madurai.

The merger was received well and benefitted the Bank of Madura, with their share price sharply rising, and finally closing at Rs 142 - over double what they hovered at only weeks ago. ICICI, however saw a sharp drop in their share price totally four rupees, it closing at Rs 164.[2] The move was described as a positive strategic manoeuvre by the parties involved and news outlets alike. Bank of Madura Shareholders signed off on the deal on the 19th of January, 2001, agreeing to a 2:1 merger.[2]