Primarily Anglo-Indian creations, the three presidency banks came into existence either as a result of the compulsions of imperial finance or by the felt needs of local European commerce and were not imposed from outside in an arbitrary manner to modernise India's economy. Their evolution was, however, shaped by ideas culled from similar developments in Europe and England, and was influenced by changes occurring in the structure of both the local trading environment and those in the relations of the Indian economy to the economy of Europe and the global economic framework.

Establishment

The establishment of the Bank of Bengal marked the advent of limited liability, joint-stock banking in India. So was the associated innovation in banking, viz. the decision to allow the Bank of Bengal to issue notes, which would be accepted for payment of public revenues within a restricted geographical area. This right of note issue was very valuable not only for the Bank of Bengal but also its two siblings, the Banks of Bombay and Madras. It meant an accretion to the capital of the banks, a capital on which the proprietors did not have to pay any interest. The concept of deposit banking was also an innovation because the practice of accepting money for safekeeping (and in some cases, even investment on behalf of the clients) by the indigenous bankers had not spread as a general habit in most parts of India. But, for a long time, and especially upto the time that the three presidency banks had a right of note issue, bank notes and government balances made up the bulk of the investible resources of the banks.

The three banks were governed by royal charters, which were revised from time to time. Each charter provided for a share capital, four-fifth of which were privately subscribed and the rest owned by the provincial government. The members of the board of directors, which managed the affairs of each bank, were mostly proprietary directors representing the large European managing agency houses in India. The rest were government nominees, invariably civil servants, one of whom was elected as the president of the board.

Business

The business of the banks was initially confined to discounting of bills of exchange or other negotiable private securities, keeping cash accounts and receiving deposits and issuing and circulating cash notes. Loans were restricted to Rs.one lakh and the period of accommodation confined to three months only. The security for such loans was public securities, commonly called Company's Paper, bullion, treasure, plate, jewels, or goods 'not of a perishable nature' and no interest could be charged beyond a rate of twelve per cent. Loans against goods like opium, indigo, salt woollens, cotton, cotton piece goods, mule twist and silk goods were also granted but such finance by way of cash credits gained momentum only from the third decade of the nineteenth century. All commodities, including tea, sugar and jute, which began to be financed later, were either pledged or hypothecated to the bank. Demand promissory notes were signed by the borrower in favour of the guarantor, which was in turn endorsed to the bank. Lending against shares of the banks or on the mortgage of houses, land or other real property was, however, forbidden.

Indians were the principal borrowers against deposit of Company's paper, while the business of discounts on private as well as salary bills was almost the exclusive monopoly of individuals Europeans and their partnership firms. But the main function of the three banks, as far as the government was concerned, was to help the latter raise loans from time to time and also provide a degree of stability to the prices of government securities.

India witnessed rapid commercialisation in the last quarter of the nineteenth century as its railway network expanded to cover all the major regions of the country. New irrigation networks in Madras, Punjab and Sind accelerated the process of conversion of subsistence crops into cash crops, a portion of which found its way into the foreign markets. Tea and coffee plantations transformed large areas of the eastern Terais, the hills of Assam and the Nilgiris into regions of estate agriculture par excellence. All these resulted in the expansion of India's international trade more than six-fold. The three presidency banks were both beneficiaries and promoters of this commercialisation process as they became involved in the financing of practically every trading, manufacturing and mining activity in the sub-continent. While the Banks of Bengal and Bombay were engaged in the financing of large modern manufacturing industries, the Bank of Madras went into the financing of large modern manufacturing industries, the Bank of Madras went into the financing of small-scale industries in a way which had no parallel elsewhere. But the three banks were rigorously excluded from any business involving foreign exchange. Not only was such business considered risky for these banks, which held government deposits, it was also feared that these banks enjoying government patronage would offer unfair competition to the exchange banks which had by then arrived in India. This exclusion continued till the creation of the Reserve Bank of India in 1935.

TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY IN STATE BANK OF INDIA

The State Bank of India, the country’s oldest Bank and a premier in terms of balance sheet size, number of branches, market capitalization and profits is today going through a momentous phase of Change and Transformation – the two hundred year old Public sector behemoth is today stirring out of its Public Sector legacy and moving with an agility to give the Private and Foreign Banks a run for their money.

The bank is entering into many new businesses with strategic tie ups – Pension Funds, General Insurance, Custodial Services, Private Equity, Mobile Banking, Point of Sale Merchant Acquisition, Advisory Services, structured products etc – each one of these initiatives having a huge potential for growth.

The Bank is forging ahead with cutting edge technology and innovative new banking models, to expand its Rural Banking base, looking at the vast untapped potential in the hinterland and proposes to cover 100,000 villages in the next two years.

It is also focusing at the top end of the market, on whole sale banking capabilities to provide India’s growing mid / large Corporate with a complete array of products and services. It is consolidating its global treasury operations and entering into structured products and derivative instruments. Today, the Bank is the largest provider of infrastructure debt and the largest arranger of external commercial borrowings in the country. It is the only Indian bank to feature in the Fortune 500 list.

The Bank is changing outdated front and back end processes to modern customer friendly processes to help improve the total customer experience. With about 8500 of its own 10000 branches and another 5100 branches of its Associate Banks already networked, today it offers the largest banking network to the Indian customer. The Bank is also in the process of providing complete payment solution to its clientele with its over 8500 ATMs, and other electronic channels such as Internet banking, debit cards, mobile banking, etc.

With four national level Apex Training Colleges and 54 learning Centres spread all over the country the Bank is continuously engaged in skill enhancement of its employees. Some of the training programes are attended by bankers from banks in other countries.

The bank is also looking at opportunities to grow in size in India as well as Internationally. It presently has 82 foreign offices in 32 countries across the globe. It has also 7 Subsidiaries in India – SBI Capital Markets, SBICAP Securities, SBI DFHI, SBI Factors, SBI Life and SBI Cards - forming a formidable group in the Indian Banking scenario. It is in the process of raising capital for its growth and also consolidating its various holdings.

Throughout all this change, the Bank is also attempting to change old mindsets, attitudes and take all employees together on this exciting road to Transformation. In a recently concluded mass internal communication programme termed ‘Parivartan’ the Bank rolled out over 3300 two day workshops across the country and covered over 130,000 employees in a period of 100 days using about 400 Trainers, to drive home the message of Change and inclusiveness. The workshops fired the imagination of the employees with some other banks in India as well as other Public Sector Organizations seeking to emulate the programme.

The CNN IBN, Network 18 recognized this momentous transformation journey, the State Bank of India is undertaking, and has awarded the prestigious Indian of the Year – Business, to its Chairman, Mr. O. P. Bhatt in January 2008.