State Bank of India (SBI), with a 200 year history, is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits, profits, branches, customers and employees. The Government of India is the single largest shareholder of this Fortune 500 entity with 59.73% ownership. Ranked 64th in the list of Top 1000 Banks in the world by "The Banker" in July 2009 and 8th in the list of Top 300 Banks in the Asia Pacific region by the "Asian Banker", SBI is easily the most visible face of Indian banking.

The origins of State Bank of India date back to 1806 when the Bank of Calcutta (later called the Bank of Bengal) was established. In 1921, the Bank of Bengal and two other banks (Bank of Madras and Bank of Bombay) were amalgamated to form the Imperial Bank of India. In 1955, the Reserve Bank of India acquired the controlling interests of the Imperial Bank of India and SBI was created by an act of Parliament to succeed the Imperial Bank of India.

The SBI group, consisting of SBI, six associate banks and SBI Commercial and International Bank Ltd., is engaged in the business of commercial banking globally. The group has an extensive network, with over 18000 branches in India and another 150 offices in 32 countries across the world. As of 31st March 2010, the group had assets worth USD 323 billion, deposits of USD 248 billion and capital & reserves in excess of USD 18.5 billion. The group commands nearly 25% share of the domestic Indian banking market with a customer base of over 146 million and manages over 260 million accounts. Over 70% of large Indian corporates and 50% of mid-sized corporates bank with SBI.

SBI’s non- banking subsidiaries/joint ventures are market leaders in their respective areas and provide wide ranging services, which include life insurance, merchant banking, mutual funds, credit cards, factoring services, security trading and primary dealership, making the SBI Group a truly large financial supermarket and India’s financial icon. SBI has arrangements with over 1500 various international / local banks to exchange financial messages through SWIFT in all business centres of the world to facilitate trade related banking business, reinforced by dedicated and highly skilled teams of professionals.