It is the only bank that figures in Fortune’s top 100 banks. Its 13,000 branches and 5,600 automatic teller machines give it a reach throughout the length and breadth of the country; its work force of 200,000 dwarfs all other banks’. As the heir of Bank of Calcutta, which was established in 1806, it has entered its third century. A more solid institution could not be imagined than State Bank of India.

It would hardly need to give a thought to a bank that has 950 branches and 3,500 ATMs, a bank with just 25,000 employees. But while it took State Bank 201 years to accumulate deposits of Rs 3.8 lakh crore, ICICI has reached Rs 1.65 lakh crore in 12 years. In those 12 years, it has built up a net worth of Rs 22,000 crore, against State Bank's Rs 27,000 crore. The business every employee of State Bank generates is Rs 3 crore a year; an ICICI Bank employee generates three times as much. And the profit State Bank makes on each employee is Rs 2 lakh; ICICI Bank makes Rs 10 lakh per employee. No wonder employees absorb a quarter of State Bank’s total costs; ICICI Bank’s employees absorb only a fourteenth.

State Bank pays more for its deposits — 4.7 per cent, against ICICI Bank's 4 per cent. And it earns less on its advances —7.6 per cent against ICICI Bank's 8.1 per cent. No wonder, therefore, that ICICI Bank earns more on its assets — 1.3 per cent against State Bank’s 0.9 per cent. If ICICI Bank decided to write off all its bad debts, it would need seven months’ profits to do so; even two years’ profits would not be enough to wipe bad debts off State Bank’s books.

Financial performance is bound to have an impact on growth. Between 2001-02 and 2005-06, State Bank added 139 branches; ICICI Bank, 204. State Bank shed 10,000 employees; ICICI Bank added 18,000. State Bank grew its deposits by 40 per cent; ICICI Bank quintupled its. State Bank increased its revenue by 30 per cent; ICICI Bank, sevenfold. If both banks grew at the rate they have achieved in the past four years, ICICI Bank will overtake State Bank in four years in terms of deposits.