Nirmala Sitharaman lauds SBI for driving India’s banking revolution

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking at the 11th SBI Banking & Economics Conclave 2024 in Mumbai today, said since 2014, the State Bank of India (SBI) has played a big role in taking banking to ordinary citizens in far-flung areas, be it through digital public infrastructure (DPI) or digital banking services or through the various government schemes, which are aimed at reaching the common man.

SBI has reached vast swathes of this country and has witnessed exponential growth in reaching every citizen, she says. The FM says SBI today has 22,500 branches and is expected to add another 500 in this financial year. SBI is also the only Indian bank to be listed in Fortune 500 listed banks, she says. "SBI has 65,000 ATMs, which is 29% of all ATMs in the country. (It) has 85,000 banking correspondents, a share of its deposits is 22.4 per cent of total deposits and has 50 crore plus customers, which accounts for 25 per cent of total debit card spends. (It) accounts for 22 per cent of the country's total mobile banking transactions, and accounts for 25 per cent of UPI remitter bank transactions," the FM adds.

She says the SBI Mumbai Main Branch Building, which is celebrating 100 years today, is Indo-Gothic in its architectural design and style. "It is classified as a Grade II-A heritage structure. The building remains solid and gives the confidence to the nation that this is the bank which then had 250 branches and now has 22,500 branches." SBI is India's largest public sector bank and the 7th biggest listed company with an m-cap of Rs 7.26 lakh crore.