Kolkata: State Bank of India, or SBI—the country’s biggest lender—will on Sunday create a record of sorts by simultaneously launching 154 new branches and 1,540 automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country, according to a statement issued by the bank.SBI currently has 11,657 branches and 9,502 ATMs.
On Sunday, it will add 11 branches and 110 ATMs in each of its 14 regional circles. In the current fiscal, SBI plans to open over 1,000 branches.
On Sunday, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate a branch of the bank at Omarpur in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district from where he has been elected to Parliament. On 9 March last year, then Union finance minister P. Chidambaram had opened SBI’s 10,000th branch at Puduvayal in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga district—the parliamentary constituency from which he had won. On that day, the bank had opened 101 branches.