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 57th in the list of Top 1000 Banks in the world by "The Banker" in July 2008 and 16th 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 15700 branches and 86 offices in 33 countries across the world. As of 31st March 2008, the group had assets worth USD 250 billion, deposits of USD 193 billion and capital & reserves in excess of USD 15 billion. The group commands nearly 25% share of the domestic Indian banking market with a customer base of over 146 million. 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.