Banks in India can be categorized into non-scheduled banks and scheduled banks. Scheduled banks constitute of commercial banks and co-operative banks. There are about 67,000 branches of Scheduled banks spread across India. During the first phase of financial reforms, there was a nationalization of 14 major banks in 1969. This crucial step led to a shift from Class banking to Mass banking. Since then the growth of the banking industry in India has been a continuous process.
As far as the present scenario is concerned the banking industry is in a transition phase. The Public Sector Banks (PSBs), which are the foundation of the Indian Banking system account for more than 78 per cent of total banking industry assets. Unfortunately they are burdened with excessive Non Performing assets (NPAs), massive manpower and lack of modern technology.
On the other hand the Private Sector Banks in India are witnessing immense progress. They are leaders in Internet banking, mobile banking, phone banking, ATMs. On the other hand the Public Sector Banks are still facing the problem of unhappy employees. There has been a decrease of 20 percent in the employee strength of the private sector in the wake of the Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS). As far as foreign banks are concerned they are likely to succeed in India.
Indusland Bank was the first private bank to be set up in India. IDBI, ING Vyasa Bank, SBI Commercial and International Bank Ltd, Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd, Karur Vysya Bank Ltd, Bank of Rajasthan Ltd etc are some Private Sector Banks. Banks from the Public Sector include Punjab National bank, Vijaya Bank, UCO Bank, Oriental Bank, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank etc.
ANZ Grindlays Bank, ABN-AMRO Bank, American Express Bank Ltd, Citibank etc are some foreign banks operating in India.
