services even in the remotest parts of India.

But, above all, it means conservative banking with an eye on safety for an organisation that is 59 per cent held by the Government of India. It is managed conservatively to avoid high risks.

'We're a very personal bank. We have a friendly relationship with our customers,' said a senior executive in the bank's city headquarters where the company has had a presence since 1921 when it was established very much along British lines.

It's ironical then that a major part of the firm's appeal today is the degree to which it diverges from the Anglo-American model, which has caused the world economy so much grief of late. It's instructive to note that the bank became a safe haven for international funds during the periods of greatest anxiety as the worst of the banking crisis unfolded.

'Our model is that we will never take very high risks,' said Kumar. 'That is the way our culture has developed so our customers can feel safe.' And indeed the bank has never returned a loss since its establishment.

'Safety is of the highest importance,' he said adding that the bank 'is very conscious of its commitments. We never default on any commitment.'

Kumar notes that the flow of cash into SBI's coffers indicates both the confidence that is now placed in the safety of Indian banks and the degree to which the Indian economy is being integrated into that of the rest of the world.

The bank is very much India's 'people's bank' and run with an eye as much to its social responsibilities as to profit. It has 140 million customers and 11,500 branches across the world with 92  offices outside India in 32 countries. Its reach is such that there will be an SBI branch open somewhere in the world at any time during the 24 hours. It is in the top 60 banks worldwide and is in the ranks of the Fortune 500 companies. Its global credentials, then, are without question.

With Indian investment in Britain running second only to that from the United States, SBI has been at the centre of the boom as the port of first choice for both trade and investment finance on either end of the exchange between the two countries. Nor has the current crisis dented enthusiasm to any great extent with some 100 projects in the pipeline.

The bank has benefited from the change in the world's perception of India as a nation in the modern world. 'Till 1992 we were very closed,' Kumar said, 'but with its global participation, the Indian IT industry played a key role in raising the profile of the country, allowing the rest of the world to view us as a modern nation.' And for inward investors into India, he believes the sky is the limit with opportunities in urban and rural infrastructure, roads, power and manufacturing not to mention agriculture with the nation's massive and growing population to feed. Shortly those will be followed by an exciting innovation which should particularly benefit Britain — plans to allow the establishment of foreign universities on Indian soil for the first time, opening up  a vast range of opportunities in education.

But Kumar wants to change the face of the bank in Britain to move away from its focus on Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and its classical narrower state bank focus on trade and investment finance to expand into attracting more retail business from other communities. Already it has branches in Birmingham, Leicester and Manchester. It will open a new branch in Harrow during August, another will follow in East Ham and two more will follow once permission is received from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Already the bank offers ATM cards at home and this service will shortly be rolled out in Britain following tests. Already it is offering remittance services for citizens of Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

On the back of those changes the bank will start to shed its traditional unwillingness to talk about itself and move out to actively seek more business with a promotional drive to explain what a state bank is and what it can offer the consumer.

'The whole idea is that we are making the British public more aware of our presence and raising awareness about SBI,' said Kumar who wants to see the non-Indian component of his customer base rise to an ambitious 50 per cent within three years.

India escaped relatively unscathed from the financial crisis which Kumar puts down to a number of factors: the relatively conservative nature of Indian banks, the lack of exposure to the high-risk end of the mortgage market that was seen in Britain and America; the lack of a core banking data base making it impossible to securitize assets and the fact that the RBI has tight regulations on derivatives — the key instrument at the heart of the crisis.

Would the Indian authorities focus on continuing a conservative line following the Western experience? He expected that they would but it would be a mistake, he felt, to abandon financial innovation.

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