State Bank of India (SBI) is not only the largest bank in India, but at the same time, it’s the 43rd biggest bank across the globe and positioned 221st in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s greatest corporation of 2020. For the fact, it’s the only Indian bank on the list. Then how this all has started?
History of the State Bank of India:-
Story before 1947-
The ‘Imperial Bank of India’ was formed in January 1921 by merging together the Presidency Banks of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), and Madras (now Chennai). The ‘Imperial Bank of India’ was the predecessor to today’s SBI. Interestingly, the bank was privately owned by both Europeans and Indians), despite the fact that it worked intimately or you can say closely with the British government in India and was represented by it.
Now, if we remember one thing that the RBI was formed only in 1935. Then Given this, the Imperial Bank of India carried out some central banking functions as well. It likewise went about as an investor’s bank, with the vast majority of the main banks of the day keeping a segment of their money offset as a store/deposit with it. Today it is kept up by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India).
By 1928, it had 202 branches against the seventy when it began. Interestingly, the private deposits of the bank added up to around 33% of the absolute deposits of the financial framework in India around then also.
From that time Citizens or the public got the confidence in SBI, which continues to the present day. All though it was a privately owned bank still it was seen as a government bank as it worked closely with the Government.
Story after 1947-
On 4 February 1948, Mohanlal Saksena, a legislator from Uttar Pradesh, who filled in as the Union minister of restoration or rehabilitation, turned into the primary individual to raise an inquiry regarding the matter of nationalization of the Indian banks, to the Finance Minister, R.K. Shanmukham Chetty, in the Constituent Assembly.
One of the main reason that the Govt & the politicians wanted to nationalize the Imperial Bank is with increased deposits, these funds could then be made accessible as loans to a huge part of the population that wanted to borrow money but was incapable to get from banks.
The government has nationalized the Imperial Bank of India and established the State Bank of India (SBI) on 1 July 1955. All the assets and liabilities of the Imperial Bank being transferred to SBI. It was the first big move for the Indian banking system and economy after Independence.
It was specified that the SBI would open 400 branches within five years, which it did by 1 June 1960. Starting in 2020 State Bank of India has more than 24,000 branches and almost 59,000 ATMs in India.
List of the SBI Chairmen from 1955 to till date:-
Till now SBI has a total of 26 chairmen. Where P. C. Bhattacharya was the longest chairman for 4016 days from 1st March 1957 to 28th Feb 1968. And Atal V. was the shortest period chairman with 33 days only from 15th Jan 1990 to 17th Feb 1990.
Lists are as follows-
- John Matthai (1 July 1955-30 September 1956)
- H. V. R. Iengar (1 October 1956-28 February 1957)
- P. C. Bhattacharya (1 March 1957-28 February 1968)
- B. Venkatappiah(1 March 1962-28 February 1965)
- V. T. Dehejia (1 March 1965-28 February 1969)
- Raj Kumar Talwar (1 March 1969-3 August 1976)
- T. R. Varadachary (4 August 1976-30 April 1977)
- P. C. D. Nambiar (23 May 1977-13 December 1982)
- V. S. Natarajan (20 December 1982-30 January 1983)
- R. P. Goyal (31 January 1983-30 November 1983)
- Vishwanath N. Nadkarni (1 December 1983-27 July 1984)
- D. N. Ghosh (13 May 1985-12 May 1989)
- Atal V. (15 January 1990-17 February 1990)
- M. N. Goiporia (19 February 1990-31 July 1992)
- D. Basu (25 February 1993-31 August 1995)
- P. G. Kakodkar (1 October 1995-31 March 1997)
- M. S. Verma (1 April 1997-30 September 1998)
- M. P. Radhakrishnan (1 December 1998-31 January 1999)
- G. G. Vaidya (1 February 1999-31 October 2000)
- Janki Vallabh (1 November 2000-31 October 2002)
- Arun Kumar Purwar (13 November 2002-31 May 2006)
- O. P. Bhatt (1 July 2006-6 April 2011)
- Pratip Chaudhuri (7 April 2011-30 September 2013)
- Arundhati Bhattacharya (1 October 2013-6 October 2017)
- Rajnish Kumar (7 October 2017-6 October 2020)
- Dinesh Kumar Khara (7 October to present).
State Bank of India | Financials:-
As SBI is the biggest bank in India, the numbers additionally reveal to us the equivalent. Whether it’s assets, NPA’s, or even fraudulent loan amounts.
As of March 2021 Total deposits in SBI stands 3,715,331crore. So you can imagine assets value will also be huge.

This assets value includes the financial instrument that the bank holds & the other parties that owe money to the bank.
SBI’s NPA (Non-Performing Asset)-
We know the drawback a bank will always have as NPAs. The government is planning to handle this pitfall with the help of ARC.

We are seeing a decline of NPA in State Bank. Although few experts are saying this can be due to less borrowing in the Covid Pandemic. Banks didn’t give loans that much compare to the previous years.
Stock price-
SBI launched their IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the ’90s with the face value of rupees 10. From there it has touched the all-time high of 429 this week.

SBI’s loan Fraud cases-
Banks working in India announced misrepresentation (fraud) of Rs 4.92 trillion as of March 31, 2021, which addresses almost 4.5% of the absolute bank credit, showed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) information. Where single-handedly SBI has the maximum amount of loans as fraud – Rs 78,072 crore as of March 31, 2021.
Learn more: What is infaltion, types, CPI WPI PPI, Hyperinflation, Impact in stock market & more
Conclusion-
Banks are the foundation of any economy. At the point when SBI is the biggest bank, one can imagine its job in the Indian economy. Since nationalization, SBI has served the necessities of Indian monetary improvement through rustic advancement drives and microcredit programs and by financing major horticultural and modern tasks and raising credits for the public authority.
The State Bank of India is the primary column and adds to their ideal to the financial advancement of the state in the streets of improvement and prosperity.
Read also: All you need to know about GDP