State Bank of India

State Bank of India
Type	Public
Traded as	NSE: SBIN BSE: 500112 LSE: SBID
Industry	Banking, Financial services
Founded	1 July 1955
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Pratip Chaudhuri (Chairman)
Products	Credit cards, Consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, wealth management
Owner(s)	Government of India
Employees	222,933 (2011)
Website	www.statebankofindia.com

State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest banking and financial services company in India by revenue and total assets. Its a state-owned corporation with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra.The roots of the State Bank of India rest in the first decade of 19th century, when the Bank of Calcutta, later renamed the Bank of Bengal, was established on 2 June 1806. The Bank of Bengal was one of three Presidency banks, the other two being the Bank of Bombay (incorporated on 15 April 1840) and the Bank of Madras (incorporated on 1 July 1843). All three Presidency banks were incorporated as joint stock companies and were the result of the royal charters. These three banks received the exclusive right to issue paper currency in 1861 with the Paper Currency Act, a right they retained until the formation of the Reserve Bank of India. The Presidency banks amalgamated on 27 January 1921, and the reorganized banking entity took as its name: Imperial Bank of India. The Imperial Bank of India remained a joint stock company.

Pursuant to the provisions of the State Bank of India Act (1955), the Reserve Bank of India, which is India's central bank, acquired a controlling interest in the Imperial Bank of India. On 30 April 1955, the Imperial Bank of India became the State Bank of India. The government of India recently acquired the Reserve Bank of India's stake in SBI so as to remove any conflict of interest because the RBI is the country's banking regulatory authority.

In 1959, the government passed the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, enabling the State Bank of India to take over eight former state-associated banks as its subsidiaries. On 13 September 2008, the State Bank of Saurashtra, one of its associate banks, merged with the State Bank of India.

SBI has acquired local banks in rescues. For instance, in 1985, it acquired the Bank of Cochin in Kerala, which had 120 branches. SBI was the acquirer as its affiliate, the State Bank of Travancore, already had an extensive network in Kerala.