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Indian Banking business has a history of over 200 years. From the times of the Bank of Bengal(1806) the sector has been witnessing qualitative and quantitative changes. Main players during the pre-independence period were Credit Lyonnais, Allahabad Bank, Punjab National Bank and Bank of India. With 1935 regulation the Reserve Bank of India was proclaimed the Central Bank of India and was vested with controlling powers over the commercial banks. The drastic development taken place during the first 25 years since independence was Nationalization of many private banks. With this, the central government became major policy maker for these nationalized banks. With economic liberalization measures many private and foreign banking companies were allowed to operate in the country.
Favourable economic climate and a variety of other factors such as demand for wide range of financial products from various sections of the society led to mutually beneficial growth to the banking sector and economic growth process. This was coincided by technology development in the banking operations. Today most of the Indian cities have networked banking facility as well as Internet banking facility. A customer is empowered to operate his account from any part of the country. UTI Bank, ICICI, HDFC Bank and Bank of Punjab are the main winners of the race.
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