Stop shifting of SBI unit from Kol: Civil society forum to Prez
Times of India | 19 March 2025
Kolkata: Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Manch, a civil society forum of former bankers and eminent citizens, has written to President Droupadi Murmu to stop SBI shifting a significant portion of its Global Market Unit (GMU) operations from Kolkata to Mumbai.
"As per our information, SBI plans to relocate its Centralised Global Back Office (CGBO), which operates across global financial hubs, including Sydney, Bahrain, Hong Kong, London and New York, along with its Forex Treasury, Derivatives and Structured Products divisions. It is noteworthy that since its inception, the GMU (formerly known as the Foreign Department, Kolkata) has successfully carried out these operations from Kolkata," the letter says.
The forum has said this is not the first attempt to strip Kolkata of its pivotal role in SBI's forex operations. Two decades ago, a similar move was thwarted through the collective resistance of employees and officers. The spokesperson of the organisation, Ashok Mukherjee, said state govt, too, would lose revenue if the unit was moved.