State Bank of Bikaner

The State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur in India was founded in 1963 after the State Bank of Bikaner (founded in 1944) took over the State Bank of Jaipur (founded in 1943).

It is currently an associate of the State Bank of India and was actually made a subsidiary of the latter through the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Bank) Act of 1959, a year later though before the take over.

Then its main operations were to assist small scale investors and cooperatives.

Its head offices are located in Jaipur fondly known as the Pink city which is also the capital of the Rajasthan State in India. Jaipur is located towards the North East of the state. The city of Bikaner is to the North West of the Rajasthan State and is also the administrative capital of Bikaner District.

The Sate Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur has continued to grow since its inception and it began by taking over the Govind Bank Pvt. Limited in April, 1966 and has today a total of 848 branches though most of them are to be found in the Rajasthan State.

Its other branches outside of the state are to be found in all the major commercial centers of India which include Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, New Delhi, Udaipur, and Mumbai Bikaner & Jaipur entered the capital markets in 1997 by floating 1.36million shares in its IPO at Rs 440 per share effectively making it a nationalized bank in India. By so doing it established itself as a major participator of the capital markets, banking, insurance and affiliated industries.

However the bank mainly targets small scale investors by extending credit to them at low interest rates to enable them develop their ventures. At the top of the organizational structure at Bikaner & Jaipur are O. P. Bhatt who is the chairman of the bank and Shri Arun Shandilya who is its managing director today.

n March 2007, at the close of the 206/2007 financial year, the bank recorded a revenue of Rs. 250428.04 lahks and a net income of Rs 305.80 crore over the same period. In the Indian numbering system, one lahk is equivalent to one hundred thousand units while one crore represents one hundred lahks or ten million units.

The bank today offers a wide range of services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s), Internet banking and government business. It implemented Business Process Reengineering (BPR) initiatives to develop operational efficiency and customer service.