Private Banks in India

In the Initial stage all the banks in India had been private banks, which were based within the pre-independence period to cater to the banking needs of the people. In the 1925, there are 3 major banks in india i.e. Bank of Bombay, Bank of Madras and Banks of Bengal and they merge into the Imperial Bank of India. In 1935, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was established and it took over the central banking duties from the Imperial Bank of India, transferring commercial banking fully to IBI. In 1955, after the declaration of first-five year plan, Imperial Bank of India was remodeled into State Bank of India (SBI)

After this, occurred the nationalization of major banks in India on 19 July 1969. The Government of India pass an ordinance and nationalized the 14 big commercial banks of India, together with Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank (PNB) etc. Thus, public sector banks revived to take up main role in the banking structure. In 1980, the Government of India nationalized six more commercial banks, with control over 91% of banking business of India.

In 1994, the Reserve Bank of India issued an ordinance of liberalization to license limited number of private banks, which came to be generally known as New Era tech-savvy banks. Global Trust Bank was, thus, the first private bank after liberalization; it was later amalgamated with OBC. Then Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) {became|turned|grew to become} the first to obtain an 'in principle' approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to arrange a bank in the private sector.

Currently, Private Banks in India include leading banks like ICICI Banks, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, SBI Commercial, J & K Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Karnataka Bank, ING Vysya Bank and International Bank etc. Undoubtedly, being tech savvy and full of experience, private banks have performed a significant role in the growth of Indian banking industry. They've made banking more environment friendly and customer friendly.