About Us

Bank of India was founded on 7th September 1906 by a group of eminent businessmen from Mumbai. The Bank was under private ownership and control till July 1969 when it was nationalised along with 13 other banks. Bank of India (BOI) is a premier public sector bank. Government of India holds 68.01% of the shares of the bank as on 31.03.2016.

In 1946 when a new era of freedom and prosperity was dawning India, pioneers of Bank of India took a big leap in International financial arena by opening a first ever Indian Bank branch beyond Territories. The city of London was aptly chosen for setting up the bank’s first international branch, a year before India’s independence. This momentous decision was primarily with the foresight of garnering propelled business opportunities post World –War II based on the strong Indo-British ties in the economics, political and cultural spheres. With the flow of immigrants from East African countries, the prospect of good business growth increased manifold and the branch network in UK was increased to 7 over a period of time.

BOI Manchester branch was opened on 31st May 1962, Birmingham on 31st May 1965, Leicester Branch on 19th December, 1968. Wembley Branch was opened on 7th April, 1972 followed by East Ham Branch on 6th February, 1978 and finally the Bank expanded to the Scottish Highlands and established a branch in Glasgow on 13th June, 2008. Meanwhile, having established in foothold in UK, the bank imprinted its presence in continental Europe by opening a branch in Paris in 1974, Jersey (Channel Islands) in 1978 and Antwerp, the world‘s diamond centre, in 2007. “We have recently merged our Eastham and Manchester branches with nearby Wembley and Birmingham branches respectively.”

Bank of India, UK operations is authorised by Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and is regulated by PRA & Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). India related business has an immense commercial importance and Bank of India has established ‘India Desk’ in June 1997 to serve exclusively India related business. Similarly Bank has opened a Specialised NRI Desk at Wembley Branch to help Non Resident Indians in opening of NRI accounts in India and other NRI related services. Bank of India is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme established under the Financial Services and Market Act 2000. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects deposits held with our UK branches. Payments under this scheme are limited to £85,000 of your total deposits with us in the UK. In practice, this means that each eligible depositor will be compensated up to a maximum of £85,000 of their total deposits.

The UK operations concentrate on traditional banking activities such as deposit taking, corporate lending, syndications, proprietary investments, mortgages, money and forex markets and trade finance. The activities of BOI UK are governed by the corporate policies of BOI from its group headquarters in India. Group headquarters issue policy guidelines to overseas branches including BOI UK, incorporating strategies for business focus every year. BOI UK then formulates its action plans in alignment with the corporate goals and strategies defined by BOI headquarters. The following activities have been identified presently for profitable development of BOI UK business:

• Customer Deposits
• Syndicated loans
• Loans to local and overseas corporates
• Mortgages
• Proprietary Investments
• Retail Credits
• Trade Finance including Risk Participation Products
• Forex operations
• Remittance services

BOI UK is headed by a General Manager, designated as the Chief Executive, European Branches and assisted by a team of professionals based at CE office in London.