sbi

State Bank of India is a public sector bank and a multinational financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. Measured by assets, deposits, advances, branch strength and customer base, it is the biggest bank in the country — a statutory body created not by a company registration, but by an Act of Parliament.

Its scale is easier to understand in numbers. SBI accounts for roughly a fifth of India's banking business, serves more than 45 crore customers, and operates the largest physical network of any Indian lender.

Quick Facts About SBI

Figures such as shareholding, branch count and asset size change every quarter. Always cross-check the latest annual report before quoting them in an exam answer.

Why SBI Matters

SBI is not simply the largest bank on the list — it is the bank the government leans on to deliver national financial policy. Jan Dhan accounts, subsidy transfers, pension disbursals, mudra loans and rural credit all move at scale through its network. It is also India's biggest home loan lender, and its subsidiaries — SBI Cards, SBI Life Insurance, SBI Mutual Fund, SBI General Insurance — extend its reach well beyond conventional banking.

History of SBI

SBI's institutional memory goes back more than two centuries, well before the name itself existed.

1806 — Bank of Calcutta. The story begins with the Bank of Calcutta, set up in the then capital of British India to serve the commercial banking needs of the time.

1809 — Bank of Bengal. Three years later the bank received a royal charter and was renamed the Bank of Bengal. It became the first joint-stock bank of British India.

1840 and 1843 — Bombay and Madras. Two sister institutions followed: the Bank of Bombay in 1840 and the Bank of Madras in 1843.

The Presidency Banks. Together, these three were known as the Presidency Banks. Each was a joint-stock company funded partly by private European subscribers and partly by the provincial government, and each enjoyed the privilege of issuing currency notes within its territory.

1861 — Paper Currency Act. This Act withdrew the note-issuing privilege from the Presidency Banks and transferred it to the Government of India, ending their quasi-central-bank role.

1921 — Imperial Bank of India. The three Presidency Banks were amalgamated into a single entity, the Imperial Bank of India. For the next three decades it functioned partly as a commercial bank and partly as a banker to the government, since no central bank existed until the RBI was set up in 1935.

1955 — State Bank of India is born. Acting on the recommendations of the All India Rural Credit Survey Committee, Parliament passed the State Bank of India Act. The Reserve Bank of India acquired a controlling interest in the Imperial Bank, and on 1 July 1955 the institution was reconstituted as the State Bank of India — with a clear mandate to take banking into rural India.

1959 — Subsidiary Banks Act. The State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act brought several banks belonging to the erstwhile princely states under SBI's wing as associate banks.

2007–08 — Ownership transfer. The Government of India purchased the RBI's entire stake in SBI. The move removed an obvious conflict of interest: the RBI was regulating the banking system while simultaneously owning its largest player.

2017 — The big merger. SBI absorbed its remaining associate banks along with Bharatiya Mahila Bank, consolidating the group into a single balance sheet and pushing SBI into the ranks of the world's largest banks.

Functions and Operations of SBI

As a statutory bank, SBI carries out both ordinary commercial banking work and certain agency functions on behalf of the RBI.

Core banking operations

• Accepts deposits from the general public, corporates and institutions
• Grants loans and advances to creditworthy borrowers across retail, MSME and corporate segments
• Deals in bills of exchange, promissory notes and other negotiable instruments
• Buys and sells gold and bullion
• Handles foreign exchange transactions, remittances and trade finance

Agency and statutory roles

• Acts as an agent of the Reserve Bank of India where the RBI has no branch of its own
• Handles government business — tax collections, treasury operations and scheme disbursals
• Serves as trustee, executor and administrator of estates
• Provides banking services to co-operative banks and other financial institutions

Statutory restrictions

• It cannot acquire immovable property for investment purposes; property may be purchased only for the bank's own business use
• It cannot rediscount bills that do not carry at least two good signatures

Services Offered by SBI

SBI organises its business into distinct verticals so that a farmer, a start-up founder and a multinational treasurer are each served by a specialised arm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the full form of SBI? SBI stands for State Bank of India.

Is SBI a government bank or a private bank? It is a government bank. The Government of India is the majority shareholder, though SBI is also listed on the stock exchanges, so a portion of its equity is held by retail, institutional and foreign investors.

When was SBI established? SBI in its present form came into existence on 1 July 1955. Its lineage, however, dates back to the Bank of Calcutta founded in 1806.

Who owns SBI? The Government of India, which holds a majority stake directly. Before 2008, that stake was held by the Reserve Bank of India.

Where is SBI's head office? Corporate Centre, Madame Cama Road, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Which bank did SBI replace? The Imperial Bank of India, which itself was formed in 1921 by merging the Bank of Bengal, Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras.

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