Dena Bank


Dena Bank Ltd was an Indian public sector bank. It was headquartered in Mumbai and had 1,874 branches. The bank was founded in 1938 and the Indian government nationalized it in 1969.
On 17 September 2018, the Government of India proposed the amalgamation of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with the Bank of Baroda, pending approval from the boards of the three banks. The Union Cabinet and the boards of the banks approved the merger on 2 January 2019. Under the terms of the amalgamation, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank shareholders received 110 and 402 equity shares of the Bank of Baroda, respectively, of face value 2 for every 1,000 shares they held. The amalgamation became effective from 1 April 2019.

History

Dena Bank was founded on 26 May 1938 by the family of Devkaran Nanjee, under the name Devkaran Nanjee Banking Company. It adopted its new name, Dena Bank, when it was incorporated as a public company in December 1939.
In July 1969 the Government of India nationalized Dena Bank, along with thirteen other major banks. Dena Bank thereby became a Public Sector bank constituted under the Banking Companies Act, 1970. Under the provisions of the Banking Regulations Act 1949, in addition to the business of banking, a bank can undertake other businesses as specified in Section 6 of the Banking Regulations Act, 1949.

Amalgamation

On 17 September 2018, The Finance Ministry of the Government of India proposed to merge three state run banks — Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Dena Bank — into a single bank. The amalgamated bank was estimated to become the third biggest bank in India with a total business of more than. Some of the main stated reasons for the merger were to help the weaker banks improve their operational efficiency, increase their customer base and market reach, and to help them raise capital without depending on government funds at all. Earlier that year, Dena Bank had been brought under the Prompt Corrective Action framework due to its high non-performing loans. At the time of the proposal to merge, the gross NPA ratios of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank were 12.4%, 6.9% and 22% respectively, and Dena Bank was the weakest among the three in terms of its total business size too.
Bank of Baroda announced that it would auction the Dena Corporate Centre at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai in September 2019.