In the 19th century India, Prince Dwarkanath Tagore owned his own trading firm Carr, Tagore and Company. He then separated the financial activities of his firm into a separate banking company. As a result, the Union Bank was founded in 1828.[2] The bank was formed by the merger of two other banks: The Commercial Bank and The Calcutta Bank.[3][4]
Dwarkanath was the very first Indian to become a director of an Indian bank. All of the previous Indian banks had European directors and founders.[5] Dwarkanath was assisted by his Parsi friend Rustomjee Cowasjee, a notable businessman.[6]