The origin of the State Bank of India goes back to the first decade of the nineteenth century with the establishment of the Bank of Calcutta in Calcutta on 2 June 1806. Three years later the bank received its charter and was re-designed as the Bank of Bengal (2 January 1809). A unique institution, it was the first joint-stock bank of British India sponsored by the Government of Bengal. The Bank of Bombay (15 April 1840) and the Bank of Madras (1 July 1843) followed the Bank of Bengal.
The State Bank of India, the country’s oldest Bank and a premier in terms of balance sheet size, number of branches, market capitalization and profits is today going through a momentous phase of Change and Transformation – the two hundred year old Public sector behemoth is today stirring out of its Public Sector legacy and moving with an agility to give the Private and Foreign Banks a run for their money.
