Canara Bank was founded by Shri Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, a great visionary and philanthropist, in July 1906, at Mangalore, then a small port town in Karnataka. The Bank has gone through the various phases of its growth trajectory over hundred years of its existence. Growth of Canara Bank was phenomenal, especially after nationalization in the year 1969, attaining the status of a national level player in terms of geographical reach and clientele segments. Eighties was characterized by business diversification for the Bank. In June 2006, the Bank completed a century of operation in the Indian banking industry. 

Over the years, the Bank has been scaling up its market position to emerge as a major Financial Conglomerate with as many as ten subsidiaries/sponsored institutions/joint ventures in India and abroad. As at June 2022, Canara Bank services over 10.4 crore customers through a network of 9,732 branches and 12,201 ATMs/Recycler spread across all Indian states and Union Territories.

Canara Bank has established EE cell in their bank and has also deputed technical and financial resource to look after the energy efficiency projects.