[5] It was founded in May 1894 and is the second-largest public sector bank in India in terms of its business volumes, with over 180 million customers, 12,248 branches, and 13,000+ ATMs.

It has representative offices in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Shanghai (China), Oslo (Norway), and Sydney (Australia).

It was registered on 19 May 1894 under the Indian Companies Act, with its office in Anarkali Bazaar, in pre-independent India (present-day Pakistan).

The founding board was drawn from different parts of India professing different faiths and of varying backgrounds, with the common objective of creating a truly national bank that would further the economic interest of the country.

[8][9] Lala Lajpat Rai was actively associated with the management of the Bank in its early years.

The next major event occurred in 1940 when PNB absorbed Bhagwan (or Bhugwan) Dass Bank, which had its head office in Dehra.

On 31 March 1947, even before Partition, PNB had decided to leave Lahore and transfer its registered office to India; it received permission from the Lahore High Court on 20 June 1947, at which time it established a new head office at Under Hill Road, Civil Lines in New Delhi.

In 1961, PNB acquired Universal Bank of India, which Ramakrishna Jain had established in 1938 in Dalmianagar, Bihar.

[citation needed] The government of India (GOI) nationalised PNB and 13 other major commercial banks, on 19 July 1969.

In 2004, PNB established a branch in Kabul, Afghanistan, a representative office in Shanghai, and another in Dubai.

Two years later, PNB established PNBIL – Punjab National Bank (International) – in the UK, with two offices, one in London, and one in Southall.

PNB purchased a small minority stake in Kazakhstan-based JSC Danabank established on 20 October 1992 in Pavlodar.

The associate in Kazakhstan now called JSC Tengri Bank has branches in Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Karaganda, Pavlodar and Shymkent.

Other informative services that would be provided to both account and non-account holders include online account opening, enquire bank deposit/loan products, digital products, NRI services, locate branch/atm, opt-in, opt-out options.

The WhatsApp banking service will be available 24x7, including holidays, on both android and iOS-based mobile phones.

[12] The company incurred ₹5,751 crore (US$660 million) towards employee benefit expenses during the same financial year.

[12] For the financial year 2018–2019, PNB incurred a sum of ₹2,954.15 lakh (US$3.4 million) on CSR initiatives.

[35] During the year 2018–19, PNB has also taken the initiative for donations to CM relief fund for Kerala and Kumbh Mela.

[35] To Help young talents in India the bank also initiated PNB Hockey Academy, one of the major efforts towards supporting the national games.