The president’s intervention sought on SBI’s “plan” to change the global market unit from Kolkata

A civil society platform that mobilizes public opinion against the privatization of public sector banks has expressed concern about the relocation proposed by the State Bank of India of its Global Market Unit (GMU) of Kolkata to Mumbai, and urged President Droupadi Murmu to intervene in the matter. The ‘Bank Bachao Desp Bachao Manch’ said that the planned SBI movement would potentially weaken the Western Bengal Financial Ecosystem and lead to significant losses of employment.

In a letter to the president, the civil society platform expressed concern about SBI’s decision to transfer key operations of Forex, including its centralized back office (CGBO), Forex Treasury, derivatives and divisions of structured products.

“The GMU, previously the SBI department of foreigners, has been operating from Kolkata since its inception, managing financial transactions in global centers such as Sydney, Bahrain, Hong Kong, London and New York,” the forum said in a letter to the president.

He has appealed to the president to “prevent the centralization of financial operations in Mumbai.”

Civil society believes that such movement contradicts the principles of financial decentralization and regional economic stability.

SBI Bengal Circle CGM could not be contacted for comments. The forum said that an attempt to change the SBI Forex operation unit was frustrated in 2008 after employee resistance. After the negotiations, SBI had agreed to retain his Forex business segment in Kolkata, he said.

The civil society platform claimed that the SBI movement is part of a broader strategy to undermine Bengal’s financial prominence.

The letter, signed by its calls joints Biswaranjan Ray and Soumya Datta, said that the previous measures, such as the forced mergers of United Bank of India and Allahabad Bank, the closure of the SBI central accounts office in Kolkata and the change of the bank registered office of the bank to Mumbai, has already impacted the state economy.

He said that GMU’s relocation would further reduce GST’s contributions to Western Bengal.

“GMU Kolkata generates approximately RS 25 million rupees in GST revenues annually, of which 9 percent benefits the state government,” said the letter.

In addition, the International Bank Relationships Center (IRC) contributes around 40 million rupees in income. Affirmed.

“GMU change would not only affect tax collection, but would also lead to the reduction of almost 70 contractual employees, including cleaning, maintenance, security and technical support roles,” said the civil society platform.