Background
Established in Lahore (now in Pakistan) on 19th February 1943, Oriental Bank of Commerce made a modest beginning. After the partition of the country, its Registered Office was shifted to Delhi. The Bank was nationalised on April 15, 1980 when it had a network of 307 branches with total business of around Rs 4350 million (US Dollar 108 million). The Bank has not only made phenomenal progress in terms of its reach and business levels, but also maintained an impeccable track record of declaring profit.

Operations & Financial Performance
Now, Bank has a network of 1302 branches, being controlled by 29 Regional Offices. Total business of the bank stood at Rs 1,25,404 crore (YoY growth of 23%) on December 2007, with deposits of Rs 74,180 crore and advances of Rs 51,224 crore.
Between April to December 2007, total income of the Bank increased to Rs 5,384 crore. Net Profit stood at Rs 453 crore (after amalgamation write-off). CRAR of the bank stood at a comfortable level of 12.67%. Banks’ productivity per employee stood at Rs 8.4 crore (Highest in the country), while business per branch was Rs 96 crore.

Products & Services
The bank offers deposits in the form of savings and current accounts and term deposits, various types of loans to individuals and corporates, collection of Government taxes, distribution of insurance products (life as well as non-life) and mutual fund products, demat services, and merchant banking services among others. NRI services include non-resident deposit accounts, money transfers (in tie-up with Western Union Money Transfer) etc.

Technology
OBC offers an array of delivery channels like Core Banking Solution, ATMs, Telebanking, Internet banking (through select branches) etc. Customers of the bank have the access to 726 ATMs of the bank and over 22000 ATMs of member banks under sharing basis which operate in a networked arrangement. Bank’s total business is being routed through Core Banking Solution.

Priority Sector Lending
In its endeavor to work for upliftment of rural & weaker sectors, the Bank has designed various credit schemes whereby a sizeable amount has been disbursed to Agriculture sector, Agro and Food Processing industry etc. As at December 2007, advances under priority sector increased to reach a level of Rs 17,652 crore. Out of this, credit to SME segments was of the order of Rs 6,150 crore.

New Initiatives

Bancassurance and Mutual Funds
With a view to diversifying business, the bank has tied-up with Life Insurance Corporation of India and Oriental Insurance Company for distribution of life and non-life products, respectively. Besides, the bank has entered into an agreement with different Mutual Fund Houses for distribution of Mutual Fund products, as well.

JV for Life Insurance
The Bank has signed a MoU with Canara Bank and HSBC Insurance (Asia Pacific) Holdings Ltd to participate in the equity of the proposed Joint Venture Company for Life Insurance business.