Right from its inception, the bank had a number of powerful institutional shareholders, including the Sassoon family.

[1][2] Eastern expanded into the Ottoman province of Mesopotamia (now Iraq), opening a Baghdad branch in 1912.

Eastern also expanded to other British possessions East of Suez, namely Colombo, Ceylon (1920), Madras (1922), Karachi (1923), and Singapore (1928).

In 1957, the Mundhra Scandal inflicted heavy losses on Eastern Bank's Bombay and Calcutta branches.

[1][2] The political changes in several Arab countries during the 1960s led to nationalisation of branches in Iraq, Aden, Mukalla, and Sheikh Othman, and these events greatly affected Eastern.