SBI terminates lease of GMU Kolkata; Civil society is urging RBI to intervene

The State Bank of India has terminated the lease for its Global Markets Unit (GMU) building in Calcutta, a move that has drawn objections from a civil society forum, which urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to intervene and stop any closure of the unit without regulatory approval.

An SBI notice dated January 14, 2026, issued to a vendor, stated that the bank is terminating the lease for the 11th to 16th floors of the Jeevan Sudha Building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in central Kolkata, where the currency and global markets unit was housed.

The notice provides a one-month period to vacate, indicating that the bank plans to vacate the premises as part of its plan to consolidate treasury and foreign exchange operations in Mumbai.

The bank operated its GMU and some international operations from the Jeevan Sudha Building.

However, the bank has a huge building, Samriddhi Bhavan, located at Strand Road 1 on the banks of the Hooghly, which serves as a major hub housing several SBI departments, including the State Bank Archives & Museum, and offering services ranging from retail banking to specialized functions, besides housing a large regional office.

The Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Manch (BBDBM), a civil society platform, said the SBI has already communicated to the Life Insurance Corporation of India, the building owner, its intention to vacate the premises, indicating that the closure of GMU Kolkata has been operationalized at the administrative level.

In a statement filed in the second week of January and addressed to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, BBDBM urged the central bank not to allow the surrender of GMU Kolkata’s banking license, stating that any closure without explicit approval from regulators would “pre-empt” the RBI’s statutory authority and undermine the regulatory process.

The GMU and Centralized Global Back Office (CGBO) were established in 2015 in Kolkata under former SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and have functioned as key back office operations supporting overseas centers such as London, Hong Kong and New York.

Soumya Datta, co-founder of BBDBM, said the unit has contributed significantly to the economic ecosystem of West Bengal by facilitating international and offshore banking activities from eastern India and generating direct and indirect employment.

The proposed closure, he said, could lead to the loss of specialized banking functions and weaken Kolkata’s role as a financial gateway for eastern and northeastern India.

Published on January 17, 2026