The business with a capital of 8000 rupees. T M A Pai, Upendra Pai and Vaman Kudva strove together to set up the bank. The first branch of the bank started its operations in 1925 at Udupi, in Dakshin Kannada district in Karnataka state. By 1937, it had secured its membership as a clearing house at Mumbai. The primary objective of the business was to extend the financial assistance to local weavers. Initially, the bank collected as low as two annas from the door steps of the depositors daily through its agents. This type of system wherein the agents of the bank come doorsteps to collect deposit is still prevailing in India and is referred to as the Pigmy Deposit Scheme. As time progressed, twenty banks merged with the Canara Industrial and Banking Syndicate Limited including the Maharashtra Apex Bank Limited and Southern India Apex Bank Limited. The name of the bank was changed to Syndicate Bank Limited in 1964 and the head office of the bank was shifted to Manipal. The bank expanded its operations not only on the domestic front but also overseas. It has a branch in London and the bank manages National Exchange Co. in Doha and Musandam Exchange Co. in Muscat. By 1978, it opened its 1000th branch at Hauz Khas, Delhi. Currently it has over 3500 branches and all branches are offering corebanking-e-banking services under anywhere-anytime-anyhow banking. Syndicate Bank has one branch in London, United Kingdom. 
The bank, along with 13 major commercial banks of India, was nationalised on 19 July 1969, by the Government of India. Today, The Bank is headquartered in Manipal, Karnataka, India. Bank has been conferred "Best Bank Award" amongst all the Banks in the RSETI movement by Sri Jairam Ramesh, Hon’ble Minister for Rural Development, Government of India. Bank has been awarded Banking Excellence Award 2013 for the second best public Bank in overall performance by State forum of Bankers Club Kerala. Bank has been awarded for Record Breaking Performance during Synd LIC Saptah (2nd to 7th December 2013) by marketing 15119 policies - highest by any of the Bancassurance Partners during a week by Life Insurance Corporation of India