- Bank of Madras was one of the three Presidency Banks of British India, along with the Bank of Bengal and the Bank of Bombay.
- It was established on 1 July 1843 through the amalgamation of a number of existing regional banks and headquartered in Madras (now Chennai).
- The Bank of Madras was formed in 1843 as a joint stock company with a capital of Rupees 3 million by the amalgamation of Madras Bank, Carnatic Bank, the British Bank of Madras (1795), and the Asiatic Bank (1804).
- Bank of Madras had a branch network spread into all the major cities and trade centers of South India, including Bangalore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Mangalore, Calicut, Tellicherry, Cochin, Alleppy, Cocanada, Guntur, Masulipatnam, Ootacamund, Nagapatnam, and Tuticorin. It also had a branch in Colombo, British Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.
- The Bank of Madras, in the absence of any central banking authority during that time, also conducted certain functions that are ordinarily a preserve of a central bank.
- It also issued banknotes in the Madras Presidency.
- The Bank of Madras merged with the two other Presidency banks—the Bank of Calcutta and the Bank of Bombay—on 27 January 1921 and the reorganized banking entity took on the name Imperial Bank of India.
