Express Survey

At around $600 billion or Rs 27,46,200 crore, the total banking assets in India are about the same as the world’s 25th largest bank, the Rabobank Group.

At around $780 billion, India’s GDP is comparable to that of South Korea, yet Korean banks have seven times more banking assets than Indian banks.

From Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 23,48,000 crore of assets, from a moneylender to a one-stop financial shop, from a 9-1 neighbourhood branch to a 24x7 seamless entity, the Indian banking sector has undergone a makeoverin the six decades since independence.

In 1791, the Congress chartered the first bank. Initially, only states were allowed to float banks.

From the 10th floor of the ICICI Bank building in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, the bank’s managing director and chief executive officer K.V. Kamath can a large expanse of urban India the target set for the bank to borrow from and lend to.

The business of banking is synonymous with trust. Bank customers measure this trust through the questions: is my wealth secure, is my privacy protected?

As businesses go, banking is largely a commodity business banks borrow money from those who have excess of it and lend it to those who need it, and try to earn a spread.