State Bank of India (SBI), with a 200-year history, is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits, profits, branches, customers, and employees. The Government of India is the single largest shareholder of this Fortune 500 entity with 57.64% ownership. SBI is ranked 221 st in the list of world’s top companies on the Fortune Global 500 list.
The origins of State Bank of India date back to 1806 when the Bank of Calcutta (later called the Bank of Bengal) was established. In 1921, the Bank of Bengal and two other
banks (Bank of Madras and Bank of Bombay) were amalgamated to form the Imperial Bank of India. In 1955, the Reserve Bank of India acquired the controlling interests of the
Imperial Bank of India and SBI was created by an act of Parliament to succeed the Imperial Bank of India.
On 1st April 2017, SBI merged its five Associate Banks (State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur,State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, and State Bank of Travancore) and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself. This is the first ever large-scale consolidation in the Indian Banking Industry. The SBI group now consists of SBI and its non-banking subsidiaries / joint ventures.
The SBI group has an extensive network, with over 24000 plus branches in India and another 233 offices present across all Time Zones. As of 31st March 2020, the group had assets worth USD 590 billion, deposits of USD 428.42 billion and capital & reserves more than USD 30.66 billion. The group commands over 23% share of the domestic Indian banking market.Headquartered in Mumbai, SBI provides a wide range of products and services to individuals, commercial enterprises, large corporates, public bodies, and institutional customers through its various branches and outlets, joint ventures, subsidiaries, and associate companies.
SBI’s non- banking subsidiaries/joint ventures are market leaders in their respective areas and provide wide ranging services, which include life insurance, merchant banking, mutual funds, credit cards, factoring services, security trading and primary dealership, making the SBI Group a truly large financial supermarket and India’s financial icon. SBI has arrangements with over 1500 various international / local banks to exchange financial messages through SWIFT in all business centers of the world to facilitate trade related banking business, reinforced by dedicated and highly skilled teams of professionals. It is leader is digital banking in India with highest number of internet banking and mobile banking customers. YONO is SBI brand digital platform. The digital platform has a customer base almost equal to the population of Australia. SBI is market leader across Page 1 of 2all digital channels, with a share of 29.42% in Debit Card spends, 13.43% in POS terminals, 23.23% in Mobile banking transactions. The average number of ATM transactions is around 350 mio per month. More than 90 % of Bank’s total transactions are through Alternate Channels.
SBI has over the years garnered numerous awards and accolades. In 2019, SBI was rated as Best Transaction Bank in India by “The Asian Banker”, “The Best Trade Finance Bank (India) for the eighth consecutive year by Global Finance Magazine, “Best MSME Bank Award-Large Bank by CIMSME. The digital initiative “YONO” won the “Mobile Banking Initiative of the Year – India at the Asian Banking and Finance Retail Banking Awards, Singapore.
SBI group is presently headed by Mr. Dinesh Kumar Khara.
SBI Wholesale Bank Bahrain was established in 1977 as an Offshore Banking Unit. The branch started meeting the growing relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and India. Later in 2007, SBI opened a Retail Banking Branch to cater to Individuals.
Today, we have an active global trade desk offering a variety of products. We offer quick and reliable remittance facilities to India and other countries at competitive rates through our partner Exchange Companies in the GCC region. We actively participate in global syndications besides meeting the India related business needs of GCC companies. A team of committed and motivated staff offer a variety of services and financial products at competitive pricing.
Mr. Pankaj Kandwal is presently the Country Head & Chief Executive Officer of SBI WBB operations.