Bank of Baroda

Bank of Baroda is the third largest bank in India, after the State Bank of India and the Punjab National Bank and ahead of ICICI Bank. BoB has total assets in excess of Rs. 2.27 lakh crores, or Rs. 2,274 billion, a network of over 3,000 branches and offices, and about 1,100 ATMs. IT plans to open 400 new branches in the coming year. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialised subsidiaries and affiliates in the areas of investment banking, credit cards and asset management. Its total business was Rs. 4,402 billion as of June 30.

As of August 2010, the bank has 78 branches abroad and by the end of FY11 this number should climb to 90. In 2010, BOB opened a branch in Auckland, New Zealand, and its tenth branch in the United Kingdom. The bank also plans to open five branches in Africa. Besides branches, BoB plans to open three outlets in the Persian Gulf region that will consist of ATMs with a couple of people.

The Maharajah of Baroda, Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III, founded the bank on 20 July 1908 in the princely state of Baroda, in Gujarat. The bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks of India, was nationalised on 19 July 1969, by the government of India.

International presence

Among the Bank of Baroda’s 42 overseas branches are ones in the world’s major financial centers (e.g., New York, London, Dubai,Hong Kong (which it has upgraded recently), Brussels and Singapore), as well as a number in other countries. The bank is engaged in retail banking via 17 branches of subsidiaries in Botswana, Guyana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Bank of Baroda also has a joint-venture bank in Zambia with nine branches. The Bank of Baroda maintains representative offices in Malaysia, China, Thailand, and Australia. It plans to upgrade its offices in China and Malaysia shortly to a branch and joint-venture, respectively.In its international expansion, the Bank of Baroda followed the Indian diaspora, especially that of the Gujaratis. It has significant international presence with a network of 72 offices in 25 countries, six subsidiaries, and four representative offices. 

The Bank of Baroda has received permission or in principle approval from host country regulators to open new offices in Trinidad and Tobago and Ghana, where it seeks to establish joint ventures or subsidiaries. The bank has received Reserve Bank of India approval to open offices in The Maldives, and New Zealand. It is seeking approval for operations in Bahrain, South Africa, Kuwait, Mozambique, and Qatar and is establishing offices in Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. It also has plans to extend its existing operations in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Botswana. The slogan of bank of baroda is "india's International Bank".

History

1908-1959

• 1908: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III set up Bank of Baroda (BOB).
• 1910: BoB established its first branch in Ahmedabad.
• 1953: BoB established a branch in Mombasa and another in Kampala.
• 1954: BoB opened a branch in Nairobi.
• 1956: BoB opened a branch in Dar-es-Salaam.
• 1957: BoB established a branch in London.
• 1959: BoB acquired Hind Bank.

1960s

• 1961: BoB merged in New Citizen Bank of India. This merger helped it increase its branch network in Maharashtra.
• BOB also opened a branch in Fiji.

• 1962: BoB opened a branch in Mauritius.
• 1963: BoB acquired Surat Banking Corporation in Surat, Gujarat.
• 1964: BoB acquired two banks, Umbergaon People’s Bank in southern Gujarat and Tamil Nadu Central Bank in Tamil Nadu state.
• 1964: BoB lost its branch in Narayanjanj (East Pakistan) due to the Indo-Pakistan war. It is unclear when BOB had opened the branch.
• 1965: BoB opened a branch in Guyana.
• 1967: The Tanzanian government nationalized BoB’s three branches there and transferred their operations to the Tanzanian government-owned National Banking Corporation.
• 1969: The government of India nationalized 14 top banks, including BoB.

BoB incorporated its operations in Uganda as a 51% subsidiary, with the government owning the rest.

1970s

• 1972: BoB acquired The Bank of India’s operations in Uganda.
• 1974: BoB opened a branch each in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
• 1975: BoB acquired the majority shareholding and management control of Bareilly Corporation Bank (est. 1928) and Nainital Bank (est. in 1954), both in Uttar Pradesh. Since then, Nainital Bank has expanded to Uttarakhand State.
• 1976: BoB opened a branch in Oman and another in Brussels. The Brussels branch was aimed at Indian firms from Mumbai (Bombay) engaged in diamond cutting and jewellery having business in Antwerp, a major center for diamond cutting.
• 1978: BoB opened a branch in New York and another in the Seychelles.
• 1979: BoB opened a branch in Nassau, the Bahamas.

1980s

BoB opened a branch in Bahrain and a representative office in Sydney, Australia.

BoB, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank established IUB International Finance, a licensed deposit taker, in Hong Kong. Each of the three banks took an equal share.

• 1985: BoB (20%), Bank of India (20%), Central Bank of India (20%) and ZIMCO (Zambian government; 40%) established Indo-Zambia Bank (Lusaka). BoB also opened an Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) in Bahrain.
• 1988: BoB acquired Traders Bank, which had a branch network in Delhi.

1990s

• 1990: BoB opened an OBU in Mauritius, but closed its representative office in Sydney.
• 1991: BoB took over the London branches of Union Bank of India and Punjab & Sind Bank (P&S). P&S’s branch had been established before 1970 and Union Bank’s after 1980. The Reserve Bank of India ordered the takeover of the two following the banks' involvement in the Sethia fraud in 1987 and subsequent losses.
• 1992 BoB incorporated its operations in Kenya into a local subsidiary with a small tranche of shares quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
• 1993: BoB closed its OBU in Bahrain.
• 1996: BoB Bank entered the capital market in December with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The Government of India is still the largest shareholder, owning 66% of the bank's equity.
• 1997: BoB opened a branch in Durban.
• 1998: BoB bought out its partners in IUB International Finance in Hong Kong. Apparently this was a response to regulatory changes following Hong Kong’s reversion to the People’s Republic of China. The now wholly owned subsidiary became Bank of Baroda (Hong Kong), a restricted license bank.

BoB also acquired Punjab Cooperative Bank in a rescue.

• BoB also incorporate wholly owned subsidiary BOB Capital Markets Ltd.for Broking Business.
• 1999: BoB merged in Bareilly Corporation Bank in another rescue. At the time, Bareilly had 64 branches, including four in Delhi
• In Guyana, BoB incorporated its branch as a subsidiary, Bank of Baroda Guyana.
• BoB added a branch in Mauritius, but closed its Harrow Branch in London.

2000s

• 2000: BoB established Bank of Baroda (Botswana).
• 2002: BoB acquired Benares State Bank (BSB) at the Reserve Bank of India’s request. BSB was established in 1946 but traced its origins back to 1871 and its function as the treasury office of the Benares state. In 1964, BSB had acquired Bareilly Bank (est. 1934), with seven branches; it also had taken over Lucknow Bank in 1968. The acquisition of BSB brought BOB 105 new branches.
• 2002: Bank of Baroda (Uganda) was listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).
• 2003: BoB opened an OBU in Mumbai.
• 2004: BoB acquired the failed Gujarat Local Area Bank, and returned to Tanzania by establishing a subsidiary in Dar-es-Salaam. BoB also opened a representative office each in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Guangdong, China.
• 2005: BoB built a Global Data Centre (DC) in Mumbai for running its centralized banking solution (CBS) and other applications in more than 1,900 branches across India and 20 other counties where the bank operates. BoB also opened a representative office in Thailand.
• 2006: BoB established an Offshrore Banking Unit (OBU) in Singapore.
• 2007: In its centenary year, BoB’s total business crossed 2.09 lakh crores, its branches crossed 1000, and its global customer base 29 million people.
• 2008: BoB opened a branch in Guangzhou, China (02/08/2008) and in Kenton, Harrow United Kingdom.
• 2008: BoB opened a joint venture life insurance company with Andhra Bank and Legal and General (UK) called IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company
• 2009: The Bank of Baroda registered with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, enabling it to trade as a bank in New Zealand (2009/09/01)

2010s

• 2010: Malaysia awarded a commercial banking license to a locally incorporated bank to be jointly owned by Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Andhra Bank. The new bank, India BIA Bank (Malaysia), will reside in Kuala Lumpur, which has a large population of Indians. Andhra Bank will hold a 25% stake in the joint-venture, BoB will own 40% and IOB the remaining 35%.

Indian Bank

Indian Bank, established in 1907, is a major Indian Commercial Bank headquartered in Chennai, India. It has 22,000 employees, 1,657 branches and is one of the big public sector banks of India. It has overseas branches in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and 229 correspondent banks in 69 countries. The Government of India nationalized the bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks, on 19 July 1969.

History

Indian bank was founded by Annamalai and Ramaswami Chettiar in 1907. This was in response to the financial crash faced by two leading trading companies in Madras, Arbuthnot's and Binny's.

• 1907: Established on 15 August
• 1932: Indian Bank opened a branch in Colombo.
• 1935: IB opened a branch in Jaffna.
• 1939: IB closed the Jaffna branch.
• 1940: IB opened a branch in Rangoon (Yangon).
• 1941: IB closed the Rangoon branch but opened branches in Singapore (where future branch manager KB Pisharody (1915–1998) started his career in the same year), and in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, and Penang. The rapid advance of the Japanese Army forced IB to close all its branches in Malaya and Singapore.
• 1942: IB closed the Colombo branch.
• Post-WWII: IB reopened its Malayan and Singapore branches.
• 1948: IB reopened its branch in Colombo.
• 1960s: IB acquired Mannargudi Bank (est. 1932) and Salem Bank (est. 1925).
• 1969: The Government of India nationalized 14 top banks, including Indian Bank.
• 1973: Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and United Commercial Bank established United Asian Bank Berhad in which IOB held 16.67% of the paid up capital, as a result of a new banking law in Malaysia that prohibited foreign government banks from operating in the country.
• 1978: IB became a technical adviser to P T Bank Rama in Indonesia, the result of the merger of P T Bank Masyarakat and P T Bank Ramayana.
• 1980: IB, Bank of Baroda, and Union Bank of India established IUB International Finance, a licensed deposit taker in Hong Kong. Each of the three banks took an equal share in the joint venture.
• 1987: IB acquired Bank of Tanjore (Bank of Thanjavur) in Tamil Nadu in a rescue.
• 1998: Bank of Baroda bought out its partners in IUB Intl. Fin. in Hong Kong. Apparently this was a response to regulatory changes following Hong Kong’s reversion. IUB became Bank of Baroda (Hong Kong), a restricted license bank.
• 2007: IB celebrated its centenary year.

Automated Teller Machine (ATM)

An Automated Teller Machine (ATM), commonly called a cashpoint in UK English after the trademark of the same name, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller. ATMs are known by various other names including automatic banking machine, cash machine, and various regional variants derived from trademarks on ATM systems held by particular banks.

On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe or a plastic smart card with a chip, that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date or CVVC (CVV). Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number (PIN).

Using an ATM, customers can access their bank accounts in order to make cash withdrawals, credit card cash advances, and check their account balances as well as purchase prepaid cellphone credit. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that which the bank account is denominated in (e.g.: Withdrawing Japanese Yen from a bank account containing US Dollars), the money will be converted at a wholesale exchange rate. Thus, ATMs often provide the best possible exchange rate for foreign travelers and are heavily used for this purpose as well.

Banknote

A banknote (more commonly known as a bill) is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and under many jurisdictions is used as legal tender. Along with coins, banknotes make up the cash forms of all modern money. With the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal commemorative issues, coins are generally used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values.

Originally, the value of money was determined by the intrinsic value of the material the money was made of, such as silver or gold. However, carrying around a lot of precious metal was cumbersome and often dangerous. As an alternative, banknotes would be issued. In financial terms, a note is a promise to pay someone money. Banknotes were originally a promise to pay the bearer an amount of precious metal stored in a vault somewhere. In this way the stored value (usually in gold or silver coins) backing the banknote could transfer ownership in exchange for goods or services.

Convertibility

The ability to exchange a note for some other kind of value is called "convertibility". For example a US silver certificate was "payable in silver on demand" from the Treasury until 1965. If a note is payable on demand for a fixed unit, it is said to be fully convertible to that unit. Limited convertibility occurs when there are restrictions in the time, place, manner or amount of exchange.

A common misconception is that a bank note that is inconvertible is necessarily unbacked (so-called " fiat money"). Most of the confusion centers around the failure to distinguish between two types of convertibility:

1. Physical convertibility, where a unit of currency (a dollar) can be exchanged at the issuing bank for a given physical amount of something, and
2. Financial convertibility, where a dollar can be exchanged at the issuing bank for a dollar's worth of the bank's assets.

The importance of financial convertibility can be seen by imagining that people in a community one day find themselves with more paper currency than they wish to hold — for example, when the main shopping season has ended. If the paper currency is physically convertible (for one ounce of silver, let us suppose), people will return the unwanted paper currency to the bank in exchange for silver, but the bank could head off this demand for silver by selling some of its own bonds to the public in exchange for its own paper currency. For example, if the community has 100 units of unwanted paper money, and if people intend to redeem the unwanted 100 units for silver at the bank, the bank could simply sell 100 units worth of bonds or other assets in exchange for 100 units of its own paper currency. This will soak up the unwanted paper and head off people's desire to redeem the 100 units for silver.

Thus, by conducting this type of open market operation — selling bonds when there is excess currency and buying bonds when there is too little — the bank can maintain the value of the paper currency at one ounce of silver without ever redeeming any paper currency for silver. In fact, this is essentially what all modern central banks do, and the fact that their currencies might be physically inconvertible is made irrelevant by the maintenance of financial convertibility. Note that financial convertibility cannot be maintained unless the bank has sufficient assets to back the currency it has issued. Thus, it is an illusion that any physically inconvertible currency is necessarily also unbacked.

History

Paper money originated in two forms: drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and "bills", which were issued with a promise to convert at a later date.

Money is based on the coming to pre-eminence of some commodity as payment. The oldest monetary basis was for agricultural capital: cattle and grain. In Ancient Mesopotamia, drafts were issued against stored grain as a unit of account. A " drachma" was a weight of grain. Japan's feudal system was based on rice per year – koku.

At the same time, legal codes enforced the payment for injury in a standardized form, usually in precious metals. The development of money then comes from the role of agricultural capital and precious metals having a privileged place in the economy.

Such drafts were used for giro systems of banking as early as Ptolemaic Egypt in the first century BC.

The perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals. Banknotes were seen as essentially an I.O.U. or promissory note: a promise to pay someone money, but not actual money. As banknotes became more widely used, they became more accepted as equivalent to precious metal. With the gradual removal of precious metals from the monetary system, banknotes evolved to represent fiat money.

Generally, a central bank or treasury is solely responsible within a state or currency union for the issue of banknotes. Historically, many different banks or institutions may have issued banknotes in a country. By virtue of the complex constitutional setup in the United Kingdom, two of the union's four constituent countries (Scotland and Northern Ireland) continue to print their own banknotes for domestic circulation, with the UK's central bank (the Bank of England) printing notes which are legal tender in England and Wales, and are also usable as money in the rest of the UK.

Insurance in India

Insurance is a federal subject in India. The insurance sector has gone through a number of phases and changes. Since 1999, when the government opened up the insurance sector by allowing private companies to solicit insurance and also allowing foreign direct investment of up to 26%, the insurance sector has been a booming market. However, the largest life-insurance company in India is still owned by the government.

History

In India, insurance has a deep-rooted history. Insurance in various forms has been mentioned in the writings of Manu (Manusmrithi), Yagnavalkya (Dharmashastra) and Kautilya (Arthashastra). The fundamental basis of the historical reference to insurance in these ancient Indian texts is the same i.e. pooling of resources that could be re-distributed in times of calamities such as fire, floods, epidemics and famine. The early references to Insurance in these texts has reference to marine trade loans and carriers' contracts.

Insurance in its current form has its history dating back until 1818, when Oriental Life Insurance Company was started by Anita Bhavsar in Kolkata to cater to the needs of European community. The pre-independence era in India saw discrimination between the lives of foreigners (English) and Indians with higher premiums being charged for the latter. In 1870, Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society became the first Indian insurer.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, many insurance companies were founded. In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act and the Provident Fund Act were passed to regulate the insurance business. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium-rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary. However, the disparity still existed as discrimination between Indian and foreign companies. The oldest existing insurance company in India is the National Insurance Company Ltd., which was founded in 1906. It is in business.

The Government of India issued an Ordinance on 19th January, 1956 nationalising the Life Insurance sector and Life Insurance Corporation came into existence in the same year. The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) absorbed 154 Indian, 16 non-Indian insurers as also 75 provident societies—245 Indian and foreign insurers in all. In 1972 with the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act was passed by the Indian Parliament, and consequently, General Insurance business was nationalized with effect from 1st January, 1973. 107 insurers were amalgamated and grouped into four companies, namely National Insurance Company Ltd., the New India Assurance Company Ltd., the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd and the United India Insurance Company Ltd. The General Insurance Corporation of India was incorporated as a company in 1971 and it commence business on January 1sst 1973.

The LIC had monopoly till the late 90s when the Insurance sector was reopened to the private sector. Before that, the industry consisted of only two state insurers: Life Insurers (Life Insurance Corporation of India, LIC) and General Insurers (General Insurance Corporation of India, GIC). GIC had four subsidiary companies.

With effect from December 2000, these subsidiaries have been de-linked from the parent company and were set up as independent insurance companies: Oriental Insurance Company Limited, New India Assurance Company Limited, National Insurance Company Limited and United India Insurance Company Limited.

Industry structure

Currently, a US$41 billion industry, India is the world's fifth largest life insurance market and growing at a rapid pace of 32-34% annually as per Life Insurance Council studies.

Currently, in India only two million people (0.2 % of the total population of 1 billion) are covered under Mediclaim, whereas in developed nations like USA about 75 % of the total population are covered under some insurance scheme. With more and more private companies in the sector, the situation may change soon.

Specialisation

ECGC, ESIC and AIC provide insurance services for niche markets. So, their scope is limited by legislation but enjoy special powers.

Acts

The insurance sector went through a full circle of phases from being unregulated to completely regulated and then currently being partly deregulated. It is governed by a number of acts.

The Insurance Act of 1938 was the first legislation governing all forms of insurance to provide strict state control over insurance business.

Life insurance in India was completely nationalized on January 19, 1956, through the Life Insurance Corporation Act. All 245 insurance companies operating then in the country were merged into one entity, the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

The General Insurance Business Act of 1972 was enacted to nationalise the about 100 general insurance companies then and subsequently merging them into four companies. All the companies were amalgamated into National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance, which were headquartered in each of the four metropolitan cities.

Until 1999, there were not any private insurance companies in India. The government then introduced the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act in 1999, thereby de-regulating the insurance sector and allowing private companies. Furthermore, foreign investment was also allowed and capped at 26% holding in the Indian insurance companies.

In 2006, the Actuaries Act was passed by parliament to give the profession statutory status on par with Chartered Accountants, Notaries, Cost & Works Accountants, Advocates, Architects and Company Secretaries.

A minimum capital of US$20 million(Rs.100 Crore) is required by legislation to set up an insurance business.

Authorities

The industry recognises examinations conducted by IAI (for actuaries), III (for agents, brokers and third-party administrators) and IIISLA (for surveyors and loss assessors). TAC is the sole data repository for the non-life industry.

IBAI gives voice for brokers while GI Council and LI Council are platforms for insurers.

AIGIEA, AIIEA, AIIEF, AILICEF, AILIEA, FLICOA, GIEAIA, GIEU and NFIFWI cater to the employees of the insurers.

In addition, there are a dozen Ombudsman offices to address client grievances.

Indian Rupee Symbol

The Indian Rupee Sign () is the currency sign used for the Indian rupee, the official currency of India. The Indian rupee sign was selected through a open competition among Indian residents. The design was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 July 2010. The design of the Indian rupee sign is an amalgam of the Devanagari letter "र" (ra) and the Latin capital letter "R". The Indian Rupee sign is placed at U+20B9 in the Unicode character set.

Origin

Indian Rupee Symbol

On 5 March 2009 the Indian government announced a contest to create a sign for the Indian rupee. During the Union Budget 2010, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee mentioned that the proposed sign would reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture. Five signs created by Nondita Correa-Mehrotra, Hitesh Padmashali, Shibin KK, Shahrukh J Irani, and D Udaya Kumar had been short listed from around 3331 responses received and one of them was to be finalized at the Union Council of Ministers of India meeting held on 24 June 2010. The decision was deferred by a request of the Finance Minister, and it was decided when they met again on 15 July 2010, and selected the symbol created by Udaya Kumar.

The selection process was challenged under the Right to Information Act in the Delhi High Court. The petitioner, Rakesh Kumar, who was a participant in the competition, described the process as "full of discrepancies" and "flawed", and named the Finance Ministry and the chairman of Indian Rupee Symbol Selection Committee as respondents. On 26 November 2010 the Delhi High Court dismissed the write petition since there was no justifiable ground for the stated allegations.

Design

The new sign is a amalgam of the Devanagari letter "र" (ra) and the Latin capital letter "R" without its vertical bar (similar to the R rotunda). The parallel lines at the top (with white space between them) are said to make an allusion to the tricolor Indian flag. and also depict an equality sign which symbolizes the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity.

Usage

The Indian rupee sign is currently used in all leading newspapers and can be seen in any price tag for products. Also various articles in papers where currency is to be used, this new sign is adopted instead of previous sign (Rs). Various new solutions for the usage of the Rupee Symbol have been also developed like Web Rupee provides an API which facilitates the usage of the Rupee symbol over the web. Additionally, the Ubuntu operating system is the first computer program to support the Rupee symbol out of the box. The old sign will still be used by other countries that use a Rupee, such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal.The Indian government will try to adopt the sign within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months.

Currency Exchange Rate

In finance, the exchange rates (also known as the foreign-exchange rate, forex rate or FX rate) between two currencies specify how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. It is the value of a foreign nation’s currency in terms of the home nation’s currency. For example an exchange rate of 91 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 91 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimates, about 3.2 trillion USD worth of currency changes hands every day.

The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate. The forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date.

State Bank of India

State Bank of India is the largest bank in India. The bank traces its ancestry to British India, through the Imperial Bank of India, to the founding in 1806 of the Bank of Calcutta, making it the oldest commercial bank in the Indian Subcontinent. The Government of India nationalized the Imperial Bank of India in 1955, with the Reserve Bank of India taking a 60% stake, and renamed it the State Bank of India. In 2008, the Government took over the stake held by the Reserve Bank of India.

SBI provides a range of banking products through its vast network in India and overseas, including products aimed at NRIs. The State Bank Group, with over 16000 branches, has the largest branch network in India. With an asset base of $250 billion and $195 billion in deposits, it is a regional banking behemoth. It has a market share among Indian commercial banks of about 20% in deposits and advances, and SBI accounts for almost one-fifth of the nation’s loans.

SBI has tried to reduce over-staffing by computerizing operations and Golden handshake schemes that led to a flight of its best and brightest managers. These managers took the retirement allowances and then went on to become senior managers in new private sector banks.

The State bank of India is the 29th most reputed company in the world according to Forbes.

The Subsidiaries of SBI are:

1. State Bank of Indore

2. State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur

3. State Bank of Hyderabad

4. State Bank of Mysore

5. State Bank of Patiala

6. State Bank of Travancore

Punjab National Bank

Punjab National Bank (PNB), was registered on May 19, 1894 under the Indian Companies Act with its office in Anarkali Bazaar Lahore. The Bank is the second largest government-owned commercial bank in India with about 4,500 branches across 764 cities. It serves over 37 million customers. The bank has been ranked 248th biggest bank in the world by Bankers Almanac, London. The bank's total assets for financial year 2007 were about US$60 billion. PNB has a banking subsidiary in the UK, as well as branches in Hong Kong and Kabul, and representative offices in Almaty, Shanghai, and Dubai.