SBI Aims Completion of Core Banking Modernization in Two Years: SBI MD at Singapore FinTech Fest

SINGAPORE:

State Bank of India, the nation’s largest bank, alongside its

subsidiary SBI Payments Services, shared its vision to complete the modernization of its core-

banking infrastructure within the next two years. Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival

2025,  Ashwini Kumar Tewari, SBI’s Managing Director (Corporate Banking & Subsidiaries),

outlined the Bank’s roadmap to transform its legacy systems through hollowization,

microservices, modernization, and externalization, while maintaining the continuity, trust, and

resilience that define SBI’s operations.

Elaborating on the approach,  Ashwini Kumar Tewari said that SBI has been working on a

four-axis strategy i.e. upgrading its hardware, migrating from Unix to Linux, hollowing out the

core by externalizing functions such as vendor and government payments, and introducing

microservices for operations like inquiries and accounting. These initiatives, he explained, are

helping the Bank re-architect its core systems for greater agility and scale.

Further underlining the technological shift, he noted that SBI is also building a private cloud

infrastructure to ensure scalability while maintaining regulatory compliance and data security.

“We are modernizing as we run the ship. Our systems must always remain on and available to

customers,” Ashwini Kumar Tewari emphasized, highlighting the Bank’s focus on

uninterrupted service continuity.

Discussing SBI’s evolving partnership model with the fintech ecosystem, he remarked that the

narrative has moved from competition to collaboration. To encourage innovation, SBI has

developed a sandbox and innovation hub, opening access to nearly 300 APIs that allow fintechs

to test and integrate their solutions with SBI’s systems. “Along with agility, convenience,

intuitiveness, interface, security and compliance, the ability to meet the scale of SBI’s

operations is a crucial parameter for fintech onboarding,” he added.

Sharing insights on the integration of emerging technologies,Ashwini Kumar Tewari

revealed that SBI is now deploying agentic AI through a fintech partner to verify trade finance

documents such as guarantees and letters of credit—helping both internal teams and

customers achieve faster, more accurate processing. He noted that AI applications are also

being explored in areas like service ticket resolution and document analysis to enhance

operational efficiency.

With its continued investments in AI, cloud, and open architecture, SBI is building a future-

ready banking ecosystem that combines innovation with reliability, ensuring scalability,

security, and seamless customer experience across its digital and physical touchpoints.