Lakshmi Vilas Bank was founded in 1926 by a group of seven progressive businessmen of Karur under the leadership of Shri V.S.N. Ramalinga Chettiar. Their objective was to cater to the financial needs of the people in and around Karur who were occupied in trading businesses, industry and agriculture. The Bank was incorporated on November 3, 1926 under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, and obtained the certificate to commence business on November 10, 1926. Subsequent to introduction of the Banking Regulations Act, 1949 and Reserve Bank of India as the regulator for the banking sector, the Bank obtained its banking license from RBI on 19,June 1958, and on 11, August 1958 it became a ‘scheduled commercial bank’ signifying capability to operate as a full-fledged commercial bank.
Lakshmi Vilas Bank saw considerable expansion of its branch network during the period 1961-65, when the Bank took over nine other banks. From 1974, the bank started expanding the branch network beyond Tamil Nadu to benefit from opportunities in the pan-Indian market. Thus, branches were established in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, important financial centres such as Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata as well as in other significant business centres in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Meanwhile, the Bank attained the status of Authorized Dealer in foreign exchange in 1976 enabling it to provide full range of services to customers engaged in international trade and to overseas travellers. Mechanization was introduced in the Administrative Office as early as 1977, and data processing and computerization began in right earnest in 1993 by the bank’s own in-house team. Implementation of Core Banking Solution (CBS) was started in October 2006, and all of the Bank’s branches were migrated to CBS by March 2008.
