“We have to strive to become the most valued financial institution, increase our net profit to reach new milestones, reinforce our image as the ‘Banker to Every Indian’, touching lives all-round, achieve service excellence, strategic leadership and be an employer of choice,” Setty, 59, said in a letter to employees.
He succeeds Dinesh Khara who completed his term on Tuesday.
Setty, who began his career as a probationary officer at SBI in 1988, has been appointed as chairman for three years.
He said that since the beginning of the decade, SBI’s global ranking has moved up to 17th from 52nd, and “it is now our turn to build on this foundation to grow SBI into the best bank in the country”.
At present, SBI is the third-most valued bank with a market cap of ₹7.27 lakh crore, while HDFC Bank is most valued at ₹12.5 lakh crore.Setty said he and the top management will meet employees over the next few weeks and months. SBI has 22,500 branches across India.”SBI, an iconic national institution, has been instrumental in training me on those vital first steps, moulding me from someone raw and unprocessed, into the person I am today,” he said in the letter to employees. “Today, as I embark on this new voyage as your chairman, I realise that I am not the same person I was when I started. Nor is our bank. We have both grown, adapted, and transformed.”
He further said, “We are fortunate to be living at a time when our motherland is evolving from being a ‘developing’ to a fully developed country – with deep structural changes in the nature of our economy, financial markets maturing fast and resultantly, India achieving a pole position in the comity of nations… This is India’s decade and I want it to be SBI’s decade too.”
Setty also talked about unforgettable lessons from his school days, about the art of walking in monsoons with rubber slippers on slippery bunds bordering the muddy fields without skidding or losing balance. “We were told to press our right toe into the mud first, find a firm foothold before taking the next step. This simple yet crucial technique ensured we could make our way safely, step by cautious step, I fondly recollect,” he said.
“This early, rustic lesson has stayed with me till now, much like the foundational experiences I have had at SBI. Just as those first steps on the bunds were essential practice for navigating the path ahead, the initial stages of our career shape us and provide us with the grounding to build our own future,” he added.
