Banking Awareness Study Notes (State Bank of India) for Bank Exams

Dear Readers,

With NABARD, IBPS PO, RRB PO  and SBI PO Interview, they all have a General Awareness section which is heavily filled with Banking Awareness Questions. Here we will discuss some terms related to State Bank of India (SBI); it will help you prepare well for upcoming Banking Examinations.

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. These three banks remained at the apex of modern banking in India till their amalgamation as the Imperial Bank of India on 27 January 1921.

Primarily Anglo-Indian creations, the three presidency banks came into existence either as a result of the compulsions of imperial finance or by the felt needs of local European commerce and were not imposed from outside in an arbitrary manner to modernise India’s economy. Their evolution was, however, shaped by ideas culled from similar developments in Europe and England, and was influenced by changes occurring in the structure of both the local trading environment and those in the relations of the Indian economy to the economy of Europe and the global economic framework.

Establishment of State Bank of India

The establishment of the Bank of Bengal marked the advent of limited liability, joint-stock banking in India. So was the associated innovation in banking, viz. the decision to allow the Bank of Bengal to issue notes, which would be accepted for payment of public revenues within a restricted geographical area. This right of note issue was very valuable not only for the Bank of Bengal but also its two siblings, the Banks of Bombay and Madras. It meant an accretion to the capital of the banks, a capital on which the proprietors did not have to pay any interest. The concept of deposit banking was also an innovation because the practice of accepting money for safekeeping (and in some cases, even investment on behalf of the clients) by the indigenous bankers had not spread as a general habit in most parts of India. But, for a long time, and especially up to the time that the three presidency banks had a right of note issue, bank notes and government balances made up the bulk of the investible resources of the banks.

The three banks were governed by royal charters, which were revised from time to time. Each charter provided for a share capital, four-fifth of which were privately subscribed and the rest owned by the provincial government. The members of the board of directors, which managed the affairs of each bank, were mostly proprietary directors representing the large European managing agency houses in India. The rest were government nominees, invariably civil servants, one of whom was elected as the president of the board.

SBI in the News

The merger of Associates of SBI and Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) on 01st April 2017 with State Bank of India (SBI) was a historic move in the history of India. SBI is not only the largest Public lender of India but also the most reliable and Employment providing organisation of the country. 

1st April 2017 was the record date in India as the merger of State Bank of India took place (SBI) with five of its associate banks and Bhartiya Mahila Bank. The five associate banks are State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) and State Bank of Patiala (SBP). SBI has rebranded its corporate website as “bank.sbi” from the earlier sbi.co.in. 

The background to the SBI signboard has been changed from white to “inky blue” and SBI will be written in a new font called Effra. The designing and rebranding of SBI logo have been done by a company called Design Stack. The SBI logo symbolises its role of a custodian that will keep customers’ money safe.

With the merger, State Bank of India has entered the league of ‘Top 50 Global Banks’ with a balance sheet size of Rs. 41 trillion. SBI was earlier placed at 54th rank globally but after the merging, it moved to the 44th position making it in the top 50 leading banks globally.The last time such a rebranding exercise was undertaken in 1971 after the government nationalised banks under former Prime Minister’s Indira Gandhi regime.

Post-merger, SBI’s market share will increase to nearly 22 per cent from 17 per cent. After the merger, the tagline of SBI has remained same i.e. “Banker to every Indian”. The total customer base of the bank reaches 37 crores with a branch network of around 24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMs across the country. The merged entity now has a deposit base of more than Rs 26 lakh crore and advances the level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore. Headquarters of SBI is in Mumbai.

Board of Directors

List of Directors on the Central Board of State Bank of India w.e.f. 26th June 2017.

1. Arundhati Bhattacharya (Chairman)

2. B. Sriram (Managing Director)

3. Rajnish Kumar (Managing Director)

4. Dinesh Kumar Khara (Managing Director)

5. P. K. Gupta (Managing Director)