History: State Bank of India is the successor to Imperial Bank of India. The latter was established in 1921 with the amalgamation of three Presidency Banks of Bombay, Bengal and Madras. State Bank of India came into being on 1.7.1955 through the State Bank of India Act, 1955. The Banks of erstwhile princely states of India joined the State Bank Group as subsidiaries under the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act 1959. Over the years, the Bank has expanded rapidly and the number of its branches is nearing 9000 in India and 52 foreign offices in 32 countries, at the end of March 1999. Domestic deposits of the Bank crossed Rs 1,00,000 crore mark in 1996-97.

The Bank has gone beyond the traditional banking business and diversified into Merchant Banking, Mutual Fund, Housing Finance, Leasing, Factoring and Securities Trading through wholly/partly owned subsidiaries. In collaboration with GE Capital Corporation the Bank launched its credit card in 1999. An Insurance Subsidiary is on the cards. SBI commands nearly one fifth of the Indian banking business.

SBI is the first Indian Bank to have tapped highly demanding European market through a successful Global Depository Receipts issue in Oct 1996.

SBI has recently undergone a major structural change on the recommendation of the consultants McKinsey & Co.

In 1998-99, total income was Rs 22,392 crores & net profits were Rs 1,027.8 crores. Total deposits as at the end of March 1999 were Rs 1,69,042 crores with total advances at Rs 82,360 crores.

Management: Management consists of a Central Board of Directors and two Managing Directors headed by the Chairman. The board is made up of nominees from Government of India and RBI; professionals elected by the share holders of the Bank and representatives of the employees and officers.

Central Board of Directors:

CHAIRMAN: Shri G. G. Vaidya,

Managing Directors are heads of Operational Groups within the Bank and are also called Group Executives. The board is assisted by five Deputy Managing Directors who are the functional/operational heads within the Bank and report directly to the Chairman.

Deputy Managing Directors:

• Shri D.P. Roy,
• Shri Y. Radhakrishnan,
• Shri P.K. Sarkar,
• Shri Janki Ballabh,
• Shri S. Govindarajan
  
• Shri R. Krishnamurthi
  

Officers - 61083, Clerical - 118483, Others - 60083, Total - 239649, SC/ST - 51466, Women - 23884.

Rural - 4100, Semi Urban - 2423, Urban - 1413, Metro - 937, Total - 8873, Overseas 52, Grand Total - 8925 (8982 as on Mar 1999)

Auditors:

1. Bhattachrarya Das & Co.,
2. Khimji Kunverji & Co.,
3. Price Patt & Co.,
4. P. K. Chopra & Co.,
5. P. Jain & Co.,
6. Ramanlal G. Shah & Co.,
7. Satyanarayana & Co.,
8. Raghunath Rai & Co.,
9. Vinay Kumar & Co.,
10. S. R. R. K. Sharma Associates,
11. Khanna & Co.,
12. Nundi Associates,
13. R. Subramanium & Co.