Mumbai, April 9 (IANS) State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, will open new overseas branches and is looking for right opportunities for acquisitions to expand global operations, the bank's new chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said Friday.

"For international banking we will continue to pursue expansion and global opportunities wherever they are," Chaudhuri told reporters after taking over as the chairman.

He said bank would open new branches and bolster their operations to ensure optimum efficiency.

Chaudhuri, who was the deputy managing director in-charge of international banking, said he would take forward the expansion measures started by his predecessor.

Chaudhuri succeeds O.P. Bhatt, who retired March 31. Since then R. Sridharan was acting as the interim chairman of the bank.

SBI's new chairman said controlling the non-performing assets (NPAs) would be a major challenge for him. "NPAs have increased of late. It needs to be controlled," he said.

On local expansion plans, Chaudhuri said the bank would try to consolidate its position as the leading lender in the country.

"The growth path that we have pursued will continue. We will try to consolidate the gains that we have made in terms of market share, in terms of profitability, and also in terms of returns to the investors." he added.