Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Monday, 15 September 2014 00:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
State Bank of India Managing Director A. Krishna Kumar (centre) and Chief General Manager (International Banking) R. Karthikeyan (second from left) pose with SBI Sri Lanka Country Head Ramesh Chandra (second from right) and Senior Vice President & Branch Head, Colombo M.S. Murali (right) along with staff outside the flagship branch at Sir Baron Jayatilleke Mawatha – Pic by Upul Abayasekara
State Bank of India (SBI) Colombo has been in operations since1864. It was earlier a branch of Bank of Hindustan, which was taken over by Bank of Madras in 1867. In 1921, Bank of Madras was merged with the Imperial Bank of India. Subsequently in 1955, Imperial Bank of India became State Bank of India.
The branch was mainly opened to handle the business of export of coffee and the Government business. The branch, with its 149 years of significant presence in Sri Lanka, is the oldest bank in the country. The branch is located in a heritage building in the Fort area of Colombo, which is the financial hub of Sri Lanka.
The branch is fully equipped with modern technology and with modern communication facilities such as SWIFT, etc. All the branches are networked with each other. It caters mainly to corporate and retail clients and the product range from all types of deposit accounts, financing working capital, term loans, vehicle loans, housing loans and trade finance.
Today SBI has branches in Colpetty, Wellawatte, Kandy and Jaffna apart from the Colombo Head Office branch, which also houses the FCBU branch.
State Bank of India, 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 61.58% ownership. SBI is ranked 60th in the list of Top 1000 Banks in the world by ‘The Banker’ in July 2012.
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 consists of SBI and five associate banks. The group has an extensive network, with over 20,000 plus branches in India and another 186 offices in 34 countries across the world. As of 31 March 2013, the group had assets worth $ 392 billion, deposits of $ 299 billion and capital and reserves in excess of $ 23.03 billion. The group commands over 23% share of the domestic Indian banking market.
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 1,500 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.
