A. K. Purwar

COLOMBO: State Bank of India is in the process of acquiring a couple of overseas banks in the coming months and is working towards emerging as one of the top five banks in Asia and among the top-50 in the world, its Chairman, A. K. Purwar, told The Hindu in Colombo on Tuesday.

The bank's action plan to further improve upon its position included expanding its overseas operations in the SAARC nations and the Middle-East, and focussing on countries with growing bilateral trade and those with concentration of people of Indian origin, Mr. Purwar said. The SBI was at present the 12th largest player in Asia and it hoped to reach the top-five in the continent over the "next two to three years," he said. SBI's overseas operations, he said, were going through a "very successful expansion," with almost 70 branches spread across 30 countries.

SBI, the oldest bank in Sri Lanka, is scheduled to open a branch in Kandy on Wednesday, the fourth office in the island-nation. It had planned further expansion over the next three years, in centres that were "commercially viable and peaceful," Mr. Purwar said.

The bank's technological upgradation marked by complete networking of its 13,000-odd Indian branches had enabled it to emerge as the leading player in corporate banking, agriculture and infrastructure sectors, among others, he said.

For overseas banking, SBI plans to focus on "corporate banking, coupled with retail banking." The main advantages for the customers of its overseas banking network included `very fast' fund remittance and worldwide network of ATMs.

Vinay Jain, SBI's Chief Executive Officer in Sri Lanka, said during the last two years the Sri Lankan operations had displayed a healthy growth with a balance sheet size of about $100 million as on March 31 and a profit of about $1.6 million, recording a growth of over 300 per cent.

The bank planned to open several ATMs as part of stepped up activities in the Sri Lanka's retail banking sector and hoped to have a reasonably large network in the island-nation in the next two-three years, Mr. Jain said.

SBI, Colombo's high-profile customers in the past included the then Viceroy of India and Sri Lanka, Lord Mountbatten, former Prime Ministers, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the first Executive President, J. R. Jayawardene.

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