'The Karur Vysya Bank Limited', popularly known as KVB was set up on 25th of July 1916 by Mr M.A Venkatarama Chettiar and Mr Athi Krishna Chettiar, to capitalise on the previously unexploited market of traders and agriculturists in and around Karur, a town in Tamil Nadu. Though the bank started with a seed capital of ₹1 lakh, As with most banks, the seed capital has grown, as have the services sold. The bank is managed and guided by the Board of Directors drawn from different fields. Realizing that there is more money elsewhere, the bank expanded out of Karur and established approximately 668 branches in other States and Union Territories in order to gain a pan-India presence. Shri K.K. Balu was appointed as an Additional Director of the Bank on 27 January 2012.
The bank primarily operates in treasury,corporate/wholesale banking and retail banking segments. KVB provides services such as personal, corporate, agricultural banking and services to NRIs and MSME. Under personal banking, the bank provides housing loan, personal loan; insurance; and fixed deposits among others. Under corporate banking, KVB provides services like corporate loans; demat account, multicity current account and general insurance among others. Schemes provided by KVB under agricultural banking include Green Harvester, Green Trac and KVB Happy Kisan among others. Under MSME, the bank provides products such as KVB MSME Cash, KVB MSME Term Loan, KVB MSME Vendor Bill Discounting and KVB MSME Standby Term Loan among others. The bank had added more branches and 10 ATMs during the year thus bringing the total to 711 branches and 1,655 ATMs as on Mar 31, 2017. It introduced a number of initiatives in FY16 like reloadable cards, kisan credit cards, automatic passbook kiosk, e-book, etc. The latest being introduction of fast tag and UPI based payment system. Total business volume is 95,000 crore as on Mar 31, 2017.