Indian SBI opens branch at Israel Diamond Exchange

India's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), inaugurated its first Israeli branch last Thursday
 
The ceremony was attended by the bank's chairman and president, OP Bhatt, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and leading businesspeople. State Bank of India, one of the 100 largest banks in the world, has stated that it intends to provide full commercial banking services to companies and to individuals. 
 
The opening of the branch is an attempt to establish a foreign presence and to lubricate the business scenario between India and Israel. This is the bank's 84th branch outside of India, in addition to more than 13,000 branches inside the country. The bank holds assets worth more than $135 billion and employs about 195,000 workers. It has more than 100 million clients.
SBI has other large foreign branches running in New York, Antwerp, Toronto, Moscow, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Angola.
 
SBI chairman Mr O.P. Bhatt is reported to have shared that the move would give SBI the advantage to tap on the Indo-Israel bilateral trade.