History of State Bank of India

·         State Bank of India (SBI) is India’s largest and oldest bank.

·         Measured by the number of branch offices and employees, SBI is the largest bank in the world outside China.

·         State Bank of India is originated as “Bank of Calcutta” in 1806, more than 200 years ago. Received Charter and renamed as “Bank of Bengal” in 1809.

·         Bank of Bombay (1840) and Bank of Madras (1843) were established later.

·         These 3 banks were known as Presidency Banks and they were even allowed to issue currency notes.

·         In 1811, Bank of Bengal decided to pay some forged notes because they felt a refusal to pay would be injurious to the acceptability bank notes. The culprits responsible for the forgeries went undetected for a long time.

·         ''This was the bank to do business with which would not violate its rules in the smallest particular for the Governor General himself" said Lord William Bentick Governor General (ruler of India) when his cheque was returned for a shortage of 4 annas (1/4th of One Rupee) in 1835 by the Bank.

·         The presidency Banks of Bengal, Bombay and Madras with their 70 branches were merged in 1921 to form the Imperial Bank of India.

·         The new bank took on the triple role of a commercial bank, a banker's bank (role of central bank) and a banker to the government.

·         The establishment of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the central bank of the country ended the quasi-central banking role of the Imperial Bank and Imperial Bank started acting as RBI’s representative.

·         Imperial Bank was nationalised and State Bank of India was established under State Bank of India Act 1955 passed by the parliament with Sri John Mathai-the then Finance Minister of India as first Chairman.

·         Business Standard has Awarded ‘The Banker of the Year Award’ to Shri O P Bhatt chairman for his initiative to re-energise the Bank. June ‘08

·         State Bank of India Ranking in The Banker Top 1000 World Banks Improved to 57 from 70 as Compared to the Ranking of 2007, only Indian Bank among the Top 100 Banks in the World.

·         CNN IBN Network 18 has selected Shri O P Bhatt Chairman SBI as Indian of the Year –Business 2007.

·         Ranked 8th in Top 10 Banks of Asia, only Indian bank to find a place in the Fortune Global 500 list -Up from 495 last year to 380 this year (+115 ), Seventh highest gainer.

·         Wall Street Journal Asia survey of top 5 companies In India In terms of financial reputation, 1st rank SBI.

·         SBI has bagged the awards for ‘Most Preferred Bank’ and ‘Most Preferred Brand for Home Loan’ of CNBC Consumer Awards, Sept.’08(third year in a row)

·         Winner of Readers Digest Trusted Brands Awards 2008 (Gold).

·         Awarded the ‘Bank of the Year 2008 –India’ by The Banker Magazine, London

·         SBI was the only Indian institution to figure in the top 100 rankings in "Brand Finance Global Banking 500" list of Top Global Finance Brands (2009). Ranked 69^th.