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INDIAN BANKING
STRUCTURE
AN OVERVIEW
3.1 Introduction
The existing banking structure in India, evolved over several decades, is elaborate
and has been serving the credit and banking services needs of the economy. There are
multiple layers in today's banking structure to cater to the specific and varied
requirements of different customers and borrowers. The banking structure played a major
role in the mobilisation of savings and promoting economic development. In the post
financial sector reforms (1991) phase, the performance and strength of the banking
structure improved perceptibly. Financial soundness of the Indian commercial banking
system compares favourably with most of the advanced and emerging countries.
India cannot have a healthy economy without a sound and effective banking
system. The banking system should be hassle free and able to meet the new challenges
posed by technology and other factors, both internal and external.
In the past three decades, India's banking system has earned several outstanding
achievements to its credit. The most striking is its extensive reach. It is no longer
confined to metropolises or cities in India. In fact, Indian banking system has reached
even to the remote corners of the country. This is one of the main aspects of India's
growth story.
The government's regulation policy for banks has paid rich dividends with the
nationalization of 14 major private banks in 1969. Banking today has become convenient
and instant, with the account holder not having to wait for hours at the bank counter for
getting a draft or for withdrawing money from his account.
Let us see the definitions of bank and banking, given by various authorities.
Crowther defines a bank as, "one that collects money from those who have it to
spare or who are saving it out of their income and lends the money so collected to those
who require it".
Dr. L. Hart, says that the bankers are "one who in the ordinary course of
business; honours cheques drawn upon him by persons from and for whom he receives
money on current accounts".
Sir Jhon Paget says that, "no person or body corporate otherwise can be a banker
who does not, (i) take deposit accounts, (ii) take current accounts, (iii) issue and pay
cheques, and (iv) collect cheques, for his customers".
Sir Kinley, "A bank is an establishment which makes to individuals such
advances of money as may be required and to which individuals entrust money when not
required by them for use".
Prof. Sayers says that "Banks are not merely purveyors of money but also in an
important sense, manufacturers of money".
Although the above definitions have described the meaning of bank, none of them
precisely defined, 'Banking' incorporating its entire functions. However, an attempt has
been made in Section 5(1) (b&c) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to define 'Banking'
and 'Banking Company'.
According to Section 5 (1) (b), "Banking means accepting for the purpose of
lending or investment, of deposits of money from the public, repayable on demand or
otherwise and withdrawal by cheques, draft, order or otherwise".
Section 5(1) (c) defines banking company as, "any company which transacts the
business of banking in India".
Modern banking in India which is the form of joint stock companies may be dated
back to 1786, with the establishment of the General Bank of India. In 1806, the East India
Company established the first Presidency Bank in Kolkata with the name The Bank of
Calcutta Limited. It received Royal Charter in 1809 and was renamed as the Bank of
Bengal. In the same manner, two more banks were established in 1840 and 1843 named
Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras, respectively. The Royal Charter governed the
three Presidency banks, which was revised from time to time. There were no legally
recognised commercial banks with special right within India other than the Presidency
banks. The East India Companys government reserved the right to regulate the monetary
and credit system to itself. The Paper Currency Act of 1861 abolished the right to issue
currency notes bestowed upon the Presidency banks. The only authority now empowered
to perform this function was the Government. January 1868 marked the establishment of
the New Bank of Bombay on the collapse of Bank of Bombay. Further in 1876 the
Presidency Bank Act came into existence, which brought the three Presidency banks
under the common statute and restriction on business. In terms of Act XI of 1876, the
Government of India decided on strict enforcement of the charter and the periodic
inspection of the books of these banks. Up to the year 1919, these banks had 70 branches
as (26+18+26 respectively), and they were mostly established in the port towns. Under
the Imperial Bank of India Act, 1920, these three banks were directed to merge together.
In 1921, the three Presidency banks and their branches were amalgamated to form one
strong bank i.e., the Imperial Bank of India. A directive was issued to this bank to open
100 branches in 5 years at potential mandi (trade) towns for the improvement of trade.
Imperial Bank of India was formed with the objective to develop it into a Central Bank of
the country. However, the Hilton-Young Commission recommended that a separate bank
be created to function as the Central Bank of the country which was proposed to be
named as the Reserve Bank of India. Before the establishment of such central entity, the
Imperial Bank of India was allowed to discharge all the functions of the central Bank
such as, currency and credit, public debt, government receipts and disbursements,
management and issue of securities and bonds, bankers bank, facilitator for remittances
to public and banks at rates prescribed and controlled by the government, also to function
as sole banker to the government etc.. The Allahabad Bank and the Punjab National Bank
were established in 1865 and 1894 respectively. Some other large banks of today,
namely, the Bank of India, the Central Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the Canara
bank, the Indian Bank, and the Bank of Mysore were established in between 1906 to
1913. The period of 1913 to 1948 was marked by a very slow growth as well as frequent
bank failures. The Banking Crisis of 1913 revealed the weaknesses of the banking system
such as the maintenance of an unduly low proportion of cash and other liquid assets, the
grant of large unsecured advances to the directors of banks and to the companies in which
the directors were interested. After hectic and uncontrolled expansion, there followed the
inevitable crash. The issue of failures of banks was investigated in details by the Indian
Central Banking Enquiry Committee (1929-31), with emphasis being laid on the
regulation of banking with a view to protecting the interest of the public. As per the
suggestions of the Report of this Committee the need for enacting a special Bank Act,
covering the organisation, management, and audit liquidation of banks was felt. These
authoritative recommendations of the Committee have been an important landmark in the
history of banking reforms in India. On the strong recommendations of Committee for the
establishment of a supreme body from the point of view of the development of banking
facilities in India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came into formation on April 1, 1935
with the enactment of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The objective of establishing
the Reserve Bank, as stated in the preamble to the RBI Act, was to regulate the issue of
bank notes and the keeping of reserves with a view of securing monetary stability in India
and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage
Year 1936 stands as a landmark in the Indian banking history as the first attempt at
banking legislation in India was made in this year in the form of the Indian Companies
(Amendment) Act, for incorporating a separate chapter on provisions relating to banking
companies. The new legislature gave a working definition of banking and segregate
banking from other commercial operations and special status of scheduled banks was
recognised. In the mid-1938, public got scared due to the failure of the Travancore
National and Quilon Bank (TNQ Bank). The crisis of 1938 was largely localised in South
India. At this instance, RBI observed that the majority of the non-scheduled banks were
working without any control as they were not willing to submit their operations to the
Reserve Banks regulation. Between 1939 and 1949, as many as 588 banks had failed in
various states. In October 1939, RBI submitted a report on the non-scheduled banks to
the Central Board, exposing that a number of non-scheduled banks had poor cash
reserves, low investment ratio, over extension of the advances portfolio and a large
proportion of bad and doubtful debts. There had been an extensive growth of banks
whose financial position was suspected but the presentation of their financial health was
on the basis of dressed-up balance sheets, which did not disclose many of the more
unsatisfactory features.
To understand the history of modern banking in India, one has to refer to the
"English Agency Houses" established by the East India Company. These Agency Houses
were basically trading firms and carrying on banking business as part of their main
business. Because of this dual functions and lack of their own capital (Agency Houses
depend entirely on deposits for their capital requirements) they failed and vanished from
the scene during the third decade of 18th century, The East India Company laid the
foundations for modern banking in the first-half of the 19th century with the
establishment of the following three banks:
(i) Bank of Bengal in 1809
(ii) Bank of Bombay in 1840
(iii) Bank of Madras in 1843
These banks are also known as "Presidency Banks" and they functioned well as
independent units.
During the last part of 19th century and early phase of 20th century, the 'Swadeshi
Movement' induced the establishment of a number of banks with Indian Management.
For example, Punjab National Bank Ltd. in 1895, The Bank of India Ltd. in 1906, The
Canara Bank Ltd. in 1906, The Indian Bank Ltd. in 1907, The Bank of Baroda Ltd. in
1908, The Central Bank of India Ltd. in 1911 and many other banks were established on
the same line. But most of the weak banks went bankrupt due to wrong policy decisions
taken by the management and due to severe banking crisis during 1913-18, the period of
World War I. However, the stronger and well managed banks like those mentioned above
survived the crisis.
In 1920, the "Imperial Bank of India Act" was passed for amalgamating the three
Presidency Banks. As such, the 'Imperial Bank of India' was established in 1921. It was
given power to hold government funds and manage the Public debt. The branches of the
bank were functioning as clearing houses (Agency for effecting settlement of funds
among banks). However, it was not authorized to issue currency.
Even though the need for a Central Bank was felt in the 18th century, it could be
materialized only in the 20th century. On the basis of the recommendations of the
Banking Enquiry Committee, the Reserve Bank of India Act was passed in 1934.
Accordingly the Reserve Bank of India was constituted in 1935 to regulate the issue of
Bank notes, securing monetary stability in India and to operate the currency and credit
system of the country to its economic development. Initially, it was constituted as a
private shareholders' bank with a fully paid up capital of Rs. 5 crores. . After
independence, there was a general attitude towards its nationalization. Thus, the 'Reserve
Bank of India' (Transferred to public ownership) Act was passed in 1948. Accordingly,
the entire Share Capital of the bank was acquired by the Central Government from the
private shareholders against compensation and it was nationalised on January 1, 1949.
In 1955, the 'State Bank of India Act' was passed. Accordingly the 'Imperial Bank'
was nationalized and 'State Bank of India' emerged with the objective of extension of
banking facilities on a large scale, specifically in the rural and semi-urban areas and for
various other public purposes.
In 1959, the 'State Bank of India' (Subsidiary Banks) Act was passed by which the
public sector banking was further extended. The following banks were made the
subsidiaries of State Bank of India:
(i) The State Bank of Bikaner
(ii) The State Bank of Jaipur
(iii) The State Bank of Indore
(iv) The State Bank of Mysore
(v) The State Bank of Patiala
(vi) The State Bank of Hyderabad
(vii) The State Bank of Saurashtra
(viii) The State Bank of Travancore
In 1963, the first two banks were amalgamated under the name of "The State
Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur". In 1969, fourteen major Indian commercial banks were
nationalized. These banks are Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara
Bank, Central Bank of India, Dena Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab
National Bank, Syndicate Bank,Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, United
Commercial Bank and Vijaya Bank. And in 1980 six more banks were nationalized.
These banks constitute the public sector banks while the other scheduled banks and
nonscheduled banks are in the private sector.
Some people have the opinion that the word "bank" is derived from the French
words " bancus" or "banque" which means a 'bench' . Initially, the bankers, the Jews in
Lombardy, transacted their business on benches in the market place and the bench
resembled the banking counter. If a banker failed, his' banque' (bench) was broken up by
the people, hence the Word "bankrupt" has come. In simple term, bankrupt means a
person who has lost all his Money, wealth or financial resources.
In India, the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, under which banks are regulated by
the Reserve Bank of India, defines a banking company and banking as under:
The Public sector in the Indian banking got widened with two rounds of
nationalization-first in July 1969 of 14 major private sector banks each with deposits of
Rs. 50 crore or more, and thereafter in April 1980, 6 more banks with deposits of not less
than Rs. 2 Crore each. It resulted in the creation of public sector banking with a market
share of 76.87 per cent in deposits and 72.92 per cent of assets in the banking industry at
the end of March 2003. With the merger of 'New Bank of India' with 'Punjab National
Bank' in 1993, the number of nationalized banks became 19 and the number of public
sector banks 27. The number of branches of public sector banks, which was 6,669 in June
1969, increased to 41874 by Mach 1990 and again to 46,752 by March 30, 2003. The
public sector banks thus came to occupy a predominant position in the Indian banking
scene. It is however, important to note that there has been a steady decline in the share of
PSB's in the total assets of SCB's during the latter - half of 1990s. While their share was
84.5 per cent at the end of March 1996, it declined to 81.7 per cent in 1998 and further to
81 per cent in 1999.
Private banks have comparatively greater freedom in terms of recruitment, salary and
compensation. On the other hand, PSBs are perceived to offer more job security,
and consequently, employee turnover is lower.
PSBs dominate the banking sector in India and will continue to be dominant in the
foreseeable future. However, these banks require substantial capital to support
growth.
The critical question is whether the Government, given its limited fiscal space, can
meet the enhanced capital needs of public sector banks under the Basel III capital
regulations.
The estimates suggest that the Indian banks will require an additional capital (on top
of internal accruals) to the tune of `4.95 trillion; of this, non-equity capital will be
of the order of over `3.30 trillion, while equity capital will be of the order of `1.65
trillion.
Specific to public sector banks, the estimates suggest that public sector banks would
require an additional capital to the tune of `4.15 trillion; of which equity capital will
be of the order of `1.43 trillion, while non-equity capital will be of the order of
`2.72 trillion. The Governments contribution to the equity capital of PSBs would
be of the order of `900 billion at the existing level of shareholding of the
Government. The Governments contribution will come down to approximately
`660 billion if its shareholding comes down to 51%.
Under social control, the banking system including smaller banks started gaining
strength as evidenced by the absence of voluntary or compulsory mergers of banks. Apart
from this the Banking Commission was appointed on January 22, 1969 to recommend
changes in structure, procedures and policy for the Indian banking system. However, the
Commission did not have much time to complete its task as it was overtaken by swift
politico-economic developments, which culminated in the nationalization, on July 19,
1969, of the 14 major Indian scheduled commercial banks, in the private sector. On April,
1980, six more private sector banks were nationalised, thus extending further the area of
public control over the Indian banking system. Nationalisation was the landmark in the
growth of banking system in India as it was a major step to ensure adequate credit flow
into genuine productive areas in the conformity with plan priorities. The main objectives
of nationalisation of banks were, lending to priority sector; helping weaker sections of
society by granting need based credit for asset generation at cheaper rates; extension of
banking facilities to unbanked and underbanked areas; and removal of control over banks
by a few etc.. Although banks penetrated in rural areas, but amount of credit extended to
the weaker sections of the society was not satisfactory. In 1974, the Narasimham
Committee went into these problems and recommended the establishment of Regional
Rural Banks (RRBs) under the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1975. Banking in
collaboration with central and state governments, set up RRBs in selected regions where
the co-operative system was weak and commercial banks were not very active.
Table 3.1
Progress of Commercial Banking in India (1969-1991)
Deposits
Credit
The spread to banking to the masses is evident from Table-2 in the form of
increase in the share of rural offices from 17.6 percent in 1969 to 55.7 percent by 1989.
The share of rural areas in the total deposits rose from 3.1 percent to 15 percent during
the same period. The rise in the share of credit was larger than the deposits as, from 1.5
per cent in 1969 to 16.3 percent in 1989. In the case of bank credit the gains of the rural
areas is entirely explained by the loss of the metropolitan areas. Overall, the two decades
since nationalisation of commercial banking in India saw banking being taken from its
urban confines to the vast rural stretches. Expansion of banking into the rural areas meant
a phenomenal expansion in terms of number of deposit and loan accounts. Table-3
explains the sector wise expansion. The total number of loan accounts showed a rapid
increase from 4.34 million in 1972 to over 65 million by 1992. The share of agriculture in
this total increased sharply to over 50 percent by 1982 itself. Transport operators and
trade also showed significant increase. In addition to all there improvements, totally
neglected segments, such as artisans and craftsmen and small-scale industries also gained
an important place. Its share improved from 0.68 percent to 5.41 percent.
Table 3.3
Distribution of Loan Accounts by Sectors in India (1972-1992)
(Percent)
The focus of the nationalisation was to break the nexus and improved flow of
credit to agriculture and small-scale industries. Table-4 shows the shift taken place in the
composition of the bank credit flow as an effect of nationalisation. Till the nationalisation
of banks in 1969, industry hatched over 60 percent of the total bank credit and agriculture
could get hardly 9 percent and small-scale industries about 8 per cent. By the early 1980s,
the share of agriculture had risen to 17.15 percent and transport operators 5.15 percent,
and small-scale industries 11.95 percent. With the diversification of portfolio, industrys
share came down from 61.16 percent in early 1970s to 47.35 percent by the early 1980s
and to 47.70 percent by 1992.
Table 3.4
Distribution of Loans Outstanding by Sectors in India (1972-1992)
(Percent)
Transport
1.58 2.70 5.15 4.01 2.62
Operators
Professional
Services and
4.96 4.89 6.19 10.74 11.02
Personal
Loans
Artisans &
0.09 0.21 0.31 0.62 069
Craftsmen
Other small
Scale 11.87 10.87 11.95 11.96 12.00
Industries
(i) Dealing in money: The banks accept deposits from the public and advancing them
as loans to the needy people. The deposits may be of different types current,
fixed, saving etc. accounts. The deposits are accepted on various terms and
conditions.
(ii) Deposits must be withdraw able: The deposits (other than fixed deposits) made by
the public can be withdraw able by cheques, draft on otherwise, i.e. the bank issue
and pay cheques. The deposits are usually withdrawable on demand.
(iii) Dealing with credit: The banks are the institutions that can create i.e., creation of
additional money for lending. Thus, creation of credit is the unique feature of
banking.
(iv) Commercial in nature: Since all the banking functions are carried on with the aim
of making profit, it is regarded as commercial institutions.
(v) Nature of agent: Besides the basic functions of accepting deposits and lending
money as loans, banks possess the character of an agent because of its various
agency services.
Savings Banks: These are institutions which collect the periodical savings of the
general public. Their main object is to promote thrift and saving habits among the middle
and lower income sections of the society.
Supranational Banks: Special Banks have been created to deal with certain
international financial matters. World Bank is otherwise known as International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) which gives long-term loans to developing
countries for their economic and agricultural development. Asian Development Bank
(ADB) is another Supranational Bank which provides finance for the economic
development of poor Asian countries.
Unit banking: Unit banking is originated and developed in U.S.A. In this system,
small independent banks are functioning in a limited area or in a single town i.e., the
business of each bank is confined to a single office, which has no branch at all. It has its
own board of directors and stockholders. It is also called as "localized Banking".
Therefore, correspondent banks are intermediaries through which all unit banks
are linked with bigger banks in financial centers. Through correspondent banking, a bank
can carry-out business transactions in another place where it does not have a branch.
Pure Banking and Mixed Banking: On the basis of lending operations of the
bank, banking is classified into:
(a) Pure Banking
(b) Mixed Banking
(a) Pure Banking: Under pure Banking, the commercial banks give only short-
term loans to industry, trade and commerce. They specialize in short term finance only.
This type Of banking is popular in U.K.
(b) Mixed Banking: Mixed banking is that system of banking under which the
commercial ban s perform the dual function of commercial banking and investment
banking, i.e., it combines deposit and lending activity with investment banking.
Commercial banks usually offer both short-term as well as medium term loans. The
German banking system is the best example of mixed Banking.
Local Area Banks: With a view to bring about a competitive environment and to
overcome the deficiencies of Regional Banks, Government has permitted establishment
of a one type of regional banks in rural and semi-urban centers under private sector
known as Local Area Banks.
The SBI is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits,
branches, and employees and has 13 head offices governed each by a board of directors
under the supervision of a central board. It was originally established in 1806 when the
Bank of Calcutta (latter called the Bank of Bengal) was established, and then
amalgamated as the Imperial Bank of India after merger with the Bank of Madras and the
Bank of Bombay. The shares of Imperial Bank of India were sold to the RBI in 1955.
Nationalised banks refer to private sector banks that were nationalised (14 banks in 1969
and six in 1980) by the Central Government. Unlike SBI, nationalised banks are centrally
governed by their respective head offices. Thus, there is only one board for each bank
and meetings are less frequent. In 1993, Punjab National Bank merged with another
nationalized bank, New Bank of India, so the number of nationalized banks fell from 20
to 19. Regional rural banks account for only 4 percent of total assets of scheduled
commercial banks. Scheduled cooperative banks are further divided into scheduled urban
cooperative banks and scheduled state cooperative banks. As at the end of March 2010,
the number of scheduled banks is as follows: 19 nationalized banks, eight SBI banks, 23
old private sector banks, 8 new private sector banks, 38 foreign banks, 82 regional rural
banks, 53 urban cooperative banks, and 31 state cooperative banks.
Scheduled Banks
All banks which are included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of
India Act, 1934 are scheduled banks. These banks comprise Scheduled Commercial
Banks and Scheduled Cooperative Banks. These banks are eligible for certain facilities
such as financial accommodation from RBI and are required to fulfill certain statutory
obligation. The RBI is empowered to exclude any bank from the schedule whose:
(1) Aggregate value of paid up capital and reserves fall below Rs 5 lakh
(2) Affairs are conducted in a manner detrimental to the interests of depositors
(3) Goes into liquidation and ceases to transact banking business
Commercial Banks
Commercial banks may be defined as, any banking organization that deals with
the deposits and loans of business organizations. Commercial banks issue bank checks
and drafts, as well as accept money on term deposits. Commercial banks also act as
moneylenders, by way of installment loans and overdrafts. Commercial banks also allow
for a variety of deposit. These institutions are run to make a profit and owned by a group
of individuals.
Public Sector Banks
These are banks where majority stake is held by the Government of India.
Foreign Banks
These banks are registered and have their headquarters in a foreign country but
operate their branches in our country.
Cooperative Banks
A cooperative bank is a financial entity which belongs to its members, who are at
the same time the owners and the customers of their bank. Cooperative banks are often
created by persons belonging to the same local or professional community or sharing a
common interest. Co operative banks generally provide their members with a wide range
of banking and financial services (loans, deposits, banking and accounts, etc.). They
provide limited banking products and are specialists in agriculture-related products.
Cooperative banks are the primary financiars of agricultural activities, some small-scale
industries and self employed workers. Cooperative banks function on the basis of no-
profit no-loss. Anyonya Co-operative Bank Limited (ACBL) is the co-operative bank in
India located in the city of Vadodara in Gujarat.