MUMBAI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the nation’s largest lender SBI will open 500 more branches this fiscal, taking its total physical presence to 23,000 by March.
Speaking at an event to mark the centenary of the state-owned lender's main branch in Mumbai at Horniman Circle, which was the headquarters of the 218-year SBI till the mid-1970s, Sitharaman recalled that the size of SBI has increased substantially since 1921 when three presidency banks (Bombay, Calcutta and Madras) merged to form the Imperial Bank of India (IBI). Since and until 1935, this version of the bank had acted partly even as the central bank of the nation, she said.
SBI was formed after the government passed legislation in 1955 amalgamating IBI, with a network of just about 250 branches, which has now grown to over 22,500 now.
"SBI today has grown to become 22,500 branches, and I understand that another 500 branches are going to be opened in FY25. So, 23,00 branches," Sitharaman said.
The minister said the growth of SBI should be a "global record", particularly in our context of being repeatedly "taunted" for income disparities.
She said SBI commands a 22.4 per cent share in the overall deposits, nearly a fifth in advances and serves over 50 crore customers. While 32 crore of its over 50 crore customers use the net banking, as many as 8 crore use its mobile app Yono and the bank handles up to 20 crore UPI transactions daily.
The Mumbai main branch is housed in a heritage building inaugurated in 1924 and currently handles nearly a fourth of all the deposits in the country and contributed Rs 1,800 crore of net profit in the bank last quarter, chairman CS Setty said.
The branch also handles as many as 11 key business verticals and all the key government schemes such as the now-scrapped electoral bonds, sovereign gold bonds and many other affirmative action schemes.
The minister said SBI handles 22.4 per cent of deposits and 19 per cent of system wide advances, 25 per cent of debit card expenses, 22 per cent of mobile banking transactions and 25 per cent of UPI transactions and 29 per cent of ATM footprint.