1925 1974 Syndicate Bank was founded in 1925 in
Manipal,
Udupi,
Madras Presidency,
British India. The promoters came from a lower-middle-class background and aimed to improve the socioeconomic status of the region. It was the only Indian bank with its headquarters in a rural area. The bank provided employment opportunities to the educated members of the local community. It had an initial paid-up capital of . It was unlike other banks which primarily financed trade and industries in urban areas. So as a new bank, Syndicate Bank decided to exploit the untapped
small and medium enterprise and the agriculture sector. Thus, Syndicate Bank was focussed on grassroots banking since the beginning. Syndicate Bank used to encourage its employees to work as Pigmy Deposit agents, during their spare time. In 1962, RBI barred it from using its employees as bank agents. In 1976, Syndicate Bank sponsored the establishment of Malaprabha Grameena Bank in
Dharwad,
Karnataka. In 1983, Bijapur Grameena Bank was sponsored by Syndicate Bank, headquartered in
Bijapur. In 1984, it also founded Netravati Grameena Bank in
Mangalore and Varada Grameena Bank in
Kumta. By December 1986, it had 1456 branches. In the fiscal year 1997–98, it was reported that Pigmy Deposits still contributed 15.6% of its domestic deposits and 5.6% of its global deposits. In February 2000, it was reported that the bank had further reduced its staff strengthen by 2,400 in the preceding two years.
2001 2020 in
central London, UK In 2003, Syndicate Bank tied up with the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide loans to purchase solar lamps. In December 2003, Syndicate Bank announced
sabbatical leave scheme with partial pay to reduce its employee overhead. In July 2005, it held its equity share offering. 45 million shares with the face value of were offered at -. In September 2005, the four rural banks in Karnataka sponsored by Syndicate Bank – Malaprabha Grameena Bank, Bijapur Grameena Bank (BGB), the Varada Grameena Bank, and Netravati Grameena Bank, were merged to form
Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank. In March 2007, the Pigmy Deposit scheme was relaunched as Pigmy 2007. The older scheme was also continued as Pigmy 1928. By March 2015, the bank had opened 3552 branches. On 30 August 2019,
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that Syndicate Bank would be merged with
Canara Bank. The proposed merger would create the fourth largest public sector bank in the country with assets of and 10,324 branches.{{cite news|title=Government unveils mega bank mergers to revive growth from 5-year low ==Controversies==