Today is July 1 and this day is also the country’s largest government bank SBI Foundation Day. Yes, the history of State Bank of India (SBI) is more than 200 years old and the story of its start is very interesting. Its foundation was laid at a time when the British rule was the British rule in the country and now State Bank of India is one of the 10 most valuable companies in India and is one of the Fortune-500 companies. The most important thing is that at the time of its start, its name was not SBI but something else. Let’s know how it started?
When was the foundation of SBI?
If we look at the information on the website of State Bank of India, the foundation of SBI was lying in the first decade of the 19th century, but by some other name. The date was on 2 June 1806 and on the same day in Kolkata (first Calcutta), Bank of Calcutta (Bank of Calcutta) came into existence. At that time there was a British rule in the country. Nearly 3 years after its start, the bank received its charter and on 2 January 1809 its name was changed to Bank of Bengal. This process of change did not stop here and its name kept changing even further.
This is how ‘Imperial Bank of India’ became
After getting the name ‘Bank of Bengal’ in 1809, banking sectors started accelerating according to that time in the next few years in the country. This date was 15 April 1840, when the foundation of Bank of Bombay (now Mumbai) was laid in the bank of Bombay (Bank of Madras (Bank of Madras) on 1 July 1843 after three years. Check history, so these three banks of the country were actually opened to oversee the financial work of East India Company. But the amount of people of private sectors used to be deposited in them. These banks continued to work for a long time and then on 27 January 1921, Bank of Mumbai and Bank of Madras merged with Bank of Bengal. After this big merger, the Emperial Bank of India emerged in India.
SBI became like this after independence
It is worth noting that Banks of Bengal, Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras, these three banks got the right to print and release currency in 1861 and even after the merger, this work continued through Imperial Bank of India. Then when the country got independence, the work of Imperial Bank of India continued even after the British left the slavery, but it was also seen to be expanded. In 1955, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) acquired the Imperial Bank of India under the Parliamentary Act and saw another major change in its name. On 30 April 1955, the name of the Imperial Bank was changed to State Bank of India i.e. SBI.
SBI was officially established on 1 July 1955 after the new name was given by the RBI. On this day, the first bank account in SBI was also opened. Under this, 480 offices of Imperial Bank of India operated in the country were converted into SBI Office. Among them were branch offices, sub branch offices and three local headquarters. After this, the banking sector continued to grow in the country. The B State Bank of India Act was passed in 1955 and in October, State Bank of Hyderabad came to the fore as SBI’s first associate bank. After this, The State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 was brought on 10 September 1959.
SBI included in top-10 companies today
The scope of SBI continued to grow with time with the names found before independence and after independence. In the year 2017, SBI was merged with State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Tavancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBH) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH). This merger took place on 1 April 2017. After the merger, SBI emerged as a global bank. Its number of branches was 22,500. Today, according to the market capitalization, the State Bank of India is among the Top-10 valuable companies and its market capitalization (SBI Market CAP) has increased to Rs 7.32 lakh crore.