SBI takes firm stand on shifting key departments from Kolkata to Mumbai

State Bank of India (SBI), the mass lender that traces its origin to the 1806 Bank of Calcutta, has now moved a step closer to its long-term plan to shift several key departments of its global market unit from Kolkata to Mumbai as part of a centralization initiative. Some local civil society platforms have opposed the plan.

“We advise that opening/shifting/rationalisation of branches/offices is a continuous process undertaken by the bank in the normal course of business and such initiatives are taken after due consideration of the evolving business/operational requirements and administrative exigencies,” SBI said in a letter to Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Manch, a civil society platform contesting the migration.

ET reviewed a copy of the letter dated June 6, 2025.

The secretary of Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Manch, Soumya Dutta, is a former general secretary of the State Bank of India Officers’ Federation. This platform was protesting SBI’s proposed centralization move the past couple of years and had written to the President of India in March this year, seeking her direct intervention.

SBI’s global market unit comes under the bank’s corporate office in Mumbai. It has 10 departments, including international remittances, a Centralised Global Back Office (CGBO), and forex treasury. The unit was earlier known as the foreign currency department.

The back office caters to customers in Sydney, Bahrain, Hong Kong, London and New York.In 2024, the bank initiated plans to shift the CGBO, along with the forex treasury, derivatives and structured products divisions, to Mumbai, but slowed the process following protests from a section of employees in Kolkata.The plan received a fresh push under chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, who took over as chairman in August last year.

The CGBO was set up in 2015 when Anundhati Bhattacharya was the chairperson of the state-run bank – the most-valued government asset. The global market unit has about 150 officers and about 70 contractual staff, people aware of the details said.

SBI officers’ unions in Kolkata have so far not been at the vanguard of the protests.

“We will request the chief minister to prevent the plan to shift the global market unit from Kolkata to Mumbai. The state government earns significant revenue from this department. We will also urge her to take up the matter with the central government,” State Bank of India Officers’ Association general secretary (Bengal Circle) Shubhajyoti Chattopadhyay told ET Thursday.

The state government earns around Rs 30-32 crore in goods and service tax from the global market unit, people aware said.