About SBI

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 59.73% ownership. Ranked 64th in the list of the Top 1000 Banks in the world and 11th in Asia by "The Banker" in July 2009, SBI is easily the most visible face of Indian banking.

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.

The SBI group, consisting of SBI, six associate banks and more than 50 subsidiaries and joint ventures worldwide., is engaged in the business of commercial banking globally. The group has an extensive network, with over 17,000 branches and 141 foreign offices in over 30 countries across the world. As of 31st March 2009, the Group had assets worth USD 257 billion, deposits of USD 199 billion and capital & reserves in excess of USD 14 billion. The group commands nearly 25% share of the domestic Indian banking market with a customer base of over 146 million. Over 70% of large Indian corporations and 50% of mid-sized corporations bank with SBI.

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.