The United Kingdom based operations of India's largest lender, State Bank of India has received a new head in the consumer banking division in the name of Deepak Ahuja.

Ahuja, a senior NRI banking expert has earlier worked as head of NRI banking of Barclays Plc-Europe. Apart from this, he has worked as Vice President of Citibank, UK and marketing head of ICICI Bank, UK, Marketing manager in U.K. at Zee and U.K. Relationship manager at the American Express in Mumbai.

"The SBI has a unique brand value and brand franchise within the Indian community. Most important, people trust the SBI -- that is a predominant factor.

It is going to be pretty interesting. The SBI bank in the UK is going to be a major player in various aspects of banking, particularly retail banking," said Mr. Ahuja on his decision to join the SBI.

Rajnish Kumar, Regional Head and Chief Executive Officer of SBI, U.K., said, "Our customer base is constantly growing and we plan to undertake retail banking expansion in a big way."