The earlier holders of the Bank of India name had failed and were no longer in existence by the time a diverse group of Hindus, Muslims, Parsees, and Jews helped establish the present Bank of India in 1906 in Bombay. It was the first bank in India whose promoters aimed to serve all the communities of India. At the time, banks in India were either owned by Europeans and served mainly the interests of the European merchant houses, or by different communities and served the banking needs of their own community.
Now, Bank of India is commercial bank with headquarters at Bandra Kurla complex, Mumbai. Founded in 1906, it has been government-owned since nationalization in 1969. However, some branches are individually owned, such as Kandia, Indonesia, etc. Bank of India has 5100 branches as on 31 January 2017, including 56 offices outside India, which includes five subsidiaries, five representative offices, and one joint venture. BOI is a founder member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter Bank Financial Telecommunications), which facilitates provision of cost-effective financial processing and communication services.
BOI established a wholly owned subsidiary, Bank of India (New Zealand) Ltd., in Auckland, New Zealand on 6 October 2011. Then BOI established a wholly owned subsidiary, Bank of India (Uganda) Ltd., on 18 June 2012. Most recently, BOI opened its wholly owned subsidiary Bank of India (Botswana) Ltd., on 9 August 2013.