SBI terminates GMU Kolkata lease; civil society urges RBI to step...

Key Highlights

• The bank used to operate its GMU and some international operations from Jeevan Sudha Building.
• However, the bank has a massive building, Samriddhi Bhavan, located at 1, Strand Road on the banks of the Hooghly, which serves as a major hub housing several SBI departments, including the State Bank Archives & Museum, and offers services ranging from retail banking to specialised functions, apart from hosting a large regional office.
• The Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Manch (BBDBM), a civil society platform, said the SBI has already communicated to the Life Insurance Corporation of India, the building’s owner, its intention to vacate the premises, indicating that the closure of GMU Kolkata has been operationalised at the administrative level.
• In a representation submitted in the second week of January and addressed to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, BBDBM urged the central bank not to permit the surrender of the banking licence of GMU Kolkata, stating that any closure without explicit regulatory approval would “pre-empt” the RBI’s statutory authority and undermine the regulatory process.
• The GMU and Centralised Global Back Office (CGBO) were established in Kolkata in 2015 under former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and have functioned as key back-office operations supporting overseas centres such as London, Hong Kong and New York.