The largest bank of the country, State Bank of India has been honored with the prestigious Asian Banker Achievement Award this year as the strongest bank in Asia Pacific region. The award is given by the Qatar Financial Centre Authority and the Asian Banker magazine.

The award is symbolic to the financial performance of SBI along with key business improvements. These factors have positioned SBI as the strongest bank of Asia Pacific. The bank has recorded a steady growth in income by 29%, 14% and 28% for three consecutive years.

The award looks into the future performance of banks as a decisive factor and assesses banks for a period of three years and sets a level of excellence in the banking industry in Asia and the Gulf Region.

The bank has also been awarded with the Asian Banker transaction banking award. The bank is now the largest bank in India in terms of market capitalization.

The bank has launched a new core banking system and multiple IT reinvigoration project. It has also sped up its plan to integrate its subsidiaries which enable it to become the strongest bank of the region.

"We are happy to have received these awards which are a testimony to our untiring efforts over the past few years. The contribution of the international business to our balancesheet is substantial and we have set ourselves the target of increasing this to 25 per cent in three years. I can say that we aspire to be amongst the top five banks in Asia quite soon," Chairman Om Prakash Bhatt reacting to the award.