State Bank of India (SBI), a
government-controlled commercial bank, has made great strides, especially when
the issue of the adoption of technology comes to the minds
of policymakers. As a means to stay competitive and ward off the
growing threats faced from the computer savvy new generation
private sector banks, and from the foreign banks, the adoption of
IT framework has been the need of the hour for the bank. The
Bank has undergone a dramatic transformation from the single
window concept to automatic cheque truncation and IT mission to
provide state-of-the-art, world-class banking services to customers,
and bring about IT synergy among group constituents, to
facilitate cross-selling in tune with business goals, and reduce
transactional costs, according to A K Purwar, Chairman, State Bank of
India. It has embraced the technology
in its growth pursuit. Before we look at the issue of technology
adoption by this bank as a process change, let us briefly study
the history of the bank.
The origin of the SBI can be traced back to more than
200 years, when the first Presidency Bank, the Bank of Calcutta
was established in 1806 by the Imperial government. Two
more banks, i.e., the Bank of Bombay in 1840 and Bank of Madras
in 1843 followed thereafter. All the three were known as the
Presidency Banks. These three banks operated as the apex modern
banking institutions in the country till they were amalgamated into
a single banking institution, the Imperial Bank of India. By Act
of Parliament in 1955, the State Bank of India came into
existence as a successor to the Imperial Bank of
India. |
