Indian Banking Industry: Challenges And Opportunities

Abstract

The banking industry in India has a huge canvas of history, which covers the traditional banking practices from the time of Britishers to the reforms period, nationalization to privatization of banks and now increasing numbers of foreign banks in India. Therefore, Banking in India has been through a long journey. Banking industry in India has also achieved a new height with the changing times. The use of technology has brought a revolution in the working style of the banks. Nevertheless, the fundamental aspects of banking i.e. trust and the confidence of the people on the institution remain the same. The majority of the banks are still successful in keeping with the confidence of the shareholders as well as other stakeholders. However, with the changing dynamics of banking business brings new kind of risk exposure. In this paper an attempt has been made to identify the general sentiments, challenges and opportunities for the Indian Banking Industry. This article is divided in three parts. First part includes the introduction and general scenario of Indian banking industry. The second part discusses the various challenges and opportunities faced by Indian banking industry. Third part concludes that urgent emphasis is required on the Indian banking product and marketing strategies in order to get sustainable competitive edge over the intense competition from national and global banks. This article is a small seed to existing branch of knowledge in banking industry and is useful for bankers, strategist, policy makers and researchers.

Full text

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 18
Indian Banking Industry: Challenges And Opportunities
Dr. Krishna A. Goyal kagoyala@gmail.com
Faculty,Shri Govind Guru, Government College,
Mohanlal Sukhadia University,
Banswara, 327001, India
Vijay Joshi vij.joshi18@rediffmail.com
Ph.D. Scholar, Business Administration, UCCMS,
Mohanlal Sukhadia University,
Udaipur, 313001, India.
Abstract
The banking industry in India has a huge canvas of history, which covers the traditional banking
practices from the time of Britishers to the reforms period, nationalization to privatization of banks
and now increasing numbers of foreign banks in India. Therefore, Banking in India has been
through a long journey. Banking industry in India has also achieved a new height with the
changing times. The use of technology has brought a revolution in the working style of the banks.
Nevertheless, the fundamental aspects of banking i.e. trust and the confidence of the people on
the institution remain the same. The majority of the banks are still successful in keeping with the
confidence of the shareholders as well as other stakeholders. However, with the changing
dynamics of banking business brings new kind of risk exposure.
In this paper an attempt has been made to identify the general sentiments, challenges and
opportunities for the Indian Banking Industry. This article is divided in three parts. First part
includes the introduction and general scenario of Indian banking industry. The second part
discusses the various challenges and opportunities faced by Indian banking industry. Third part
concludes that urgent emphasis is required on the Indian banking product and marketing
strategies in order to get sustainable competitive edge over the intense competition from national
and global banks.
This article is a small seed to existing branch of knowledge in banking industry and is useful for
bankers, strategist, policy makers and researchers.
Key words: Rural Market, Risk Management, Global Banking, Employee and Customer
Retention.
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent time, we has witnessed that the World Economy is passing through some intricate
circumstances as bankruptcy of banking & financial institutions, debt crisis in major economies of
the world and euro zone crisis. The scenario has become very uncertain causing recession in
major economies like US and Europe. This poses some serious questions about the survival,
growth and maintaining the sustainable development.
However, amidst all this turmoil India’s Banking Industry has been amongst the few to maintain
resilience. The tempo of development for the Indian banking industry has been remarkable over
the past decade. It is evident from the higher pace of credit expansion, expanding profitability
and productivity similar to banks in developed markets, lower incidence of non- performing
assets and focus on financial inclusion have contributed to making Indian banking vibrant
and strong.
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.

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 19
In this paper an attempt has been made to review various challenges which are likely to be faced
by Indian banking industry.
2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Bank of Hindustan was set up in 1870; it was the earliest Indian Bank. Later, three presidency
banks under Presidency Bank's act 1876 i.e. Bank of Calcutta, Bank of Bombay and Bank of
Madras were set up, which laid foundation for modern banking in India. In 1921, all presidency
banks were amalgamated to form the Imperial Bank of India. Imperial bank carried out limited
number of central banking functions prior to establishment of RBI. It engaged in all types of
commercial banking business except dealing in foreign exchange.
Reserve Bank of India Act was passed in 1934 & Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was constituted as
an apex body without major government ownership. Banking Regulations Act was passed in
1949. This regulation brought RBI under government control. Under the act, RBI got wide ranging
powers for supervision & control of banks. The Act also vested licensing powers & the authority to
conduct inspections in RBI.
In 1955, RBI acquired control of the Imperial Bank of India, which was renamed as State Bank of
India. In 1959, SBI took over control of eight private banks floated in the erstwhile princely states,
making them as its 100% subsidiaries.
It was 1960, when RBI was empowered to force compulsory merger of weak banks with the
strong ones. It significantly reduced the total number of banks from 566 in 1951 to 85 in 1969. In
July 1969, government nationalised 14 banks having deposits of Rs. 50 crores & above. In 1980,
government acquired 6 more banks with deposits of more than Rs.200 crores. Nationalisation of
banks was to make them play the role of catalytic agents for economic growth. The Narasimha
Committee report suggested wide ranging reforms for the banking sector in 1992 to introduce
internationally accepted banking practices. The amendment of Banking Regulation Act in 1993
saw the entry of new private sector banks.
Banking industry is the back bone for growth of any economy. The journey of Indian Banking
Industry has faced many waves of economic crisis. Recently, we have seen the economic crisis
of US in 2008-09 and now the European crisis. The general scenario of the world economy is
very critical.
It is the banking rules and regulation framework of India which has prevented it from the world
economic crisis. In order to understand the challenges and opportunities of Indian Banking
Industry, first of all, we need to understand the general scenario and structure of Indian Banking
Industry.
3. GENERAL BANKING SCENARIO IN INDIA
The general banking scenario in India has become very dynamic now-a-days. Before pre-
liberalization era, the picture of Indian Banking was completely different as the Government of
India initiated measures to play an active role in the economic life of the nation, and the Industrial
Policy Resolution adopted by the government in 1948 envisaged a mixed economy. This resulted
into greater involvement of the state in different segments of the economy including banking and
finance.
The Reserve Bank of India was nationalized on January 1, 1949 under the terms of the Reserve
Bank of India (Transfer to Public Ownership) Act, 1948. In 1949, the Banking Regulation Act was
enacted which empowered the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) "to regulate, control, and inspect the
banks in India." The Banking Regulation Act also provided that no new bank or branch of an
existing bank could be opened without a license from the RBI, and no two banks could have
common directors.

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 20
By the 1960s, the Indian banking industry had become an important tool to facilitate the speed of
development of the Indian economy. The Government of India issued an ordinance and
nationalised the 14 largest commercial banks with effect from the midnight of July 19, 1969. A
second dose of nationalization of 6 more commercial banks followed in 1980. The stated reason
for the nationalization was to give the government more control of credit delivery. With the second
dose of nationalization, the Government of India controlled around 91% of the banking business
of India. Later on, in the year 1993, the government merged New Bank of India with Punjab
National Bank. It was the only merger between nationalized banks and resulted in the reduction
of the number of nationalised banks from 20 to 19. After this, until the 1990s, the nationalised
banks grew at a pace of around 4%, closer to the average growth rate of the Indian economy.
In the early 1990s, the then Narasimha Rao government embarked on a policy of liberalization,
licensing a small number of private banks.
The next stage for the Indian banking has been set up with the proposed relaxation in the norms
for Foreign Direct Investment, where all Foreign Investors in banks may be given voting rights
which could exceed the present cap of 10%, at present it has gone up to 74% with some
restrictions.
The new policy shook the Banking sector in India completely. Bankers, till this time, were used to
the 4-6-4 method (Borrow at 4%; Lend at 6%; Go home at 4) of functioning. The new wave
ushered in a modern outlook and tech-savvy methods of working for traditional banks. All this led
to the retail boom in India. People not just demanded more from their banks but also received
more.
4. STRUCTURE OF INDIAN BANKING INDUSTRY
Banking Industry in India functions under the sunshade of Reserve Bank of India - the regulatory,
central bank. Banking Industry mainly consists of:
• Commercial Banks
• Co-operative Banks
The commercial banking structure in India consists of: Scheduled Commercial Banks
Unscheduled Bank. Scheduled commercial Banks constitute those banks which have been
included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934.
RBI in turn includes only those banks in this schedule which satisfy the criteria laid down vide
section 42 (60) of the Act. Some co-operative banks are scheduled commercial banks although
not all co-operative banks are. Being a part of the second schedule confers some benefits to the
bank in terms of access to accommodation by RBI during the times of liquidity constraints. At the
same time, however, this status also subjects the bank certain conditions and obligation towards
the reserve regulations of RBI.
For the purpose of assessment of performance of banks, the Reserve Bank of India categorise
them as public sector banks, old private sector banks, new private sector banks and foreign
banks.

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 21
FIGURE 1: The commercial banking structure in India
S.No. Nationalized Banks
Old Private Sector
Banks
New Private Sector
Banks Foreign Banks
1 Allahabad Bank Ltd.
Catholic Syrian Bank
Ltd. Axis Bank Ltd.
Abu Dhabi
Commercial Bank
2 Andhra Bank Ltd. City Union Bank Ltd.
Development Credit
Bank Ltd.
American Express
Bank
3 Bank of Baroda Ltd.
Dhanalakshmi Bank
Ltd. HDFC Bank Ltd.
Bank Internasional
Indonesia
4 Bank of India Ltd. Federal Bank Ltd ICICI Bank Ltd. Bank of America NA
5
Bank of Maharashtra
Ltd. ING Vysya Bank Ltd. IndusInd Bank Ltd. Bank of Ceylon
6 Canara Bank Ltd.
Jammu and Kashmir
Bank Ltd.
Kotak Mahindra Bank
Ltd.
Bank of Nova Scotia
(Scotia Bank)
7
Central Bank of India
Ltd. Karnataka Bank Ltd. Yes Bank Ltd.
Bank of Tokyo
Mitsubishi UFJ
8
Corporation Bank
Ltd. Karur Vysya Bank Ltd.
Barclays Bank PLC
9 Dena Bank Ltd.
Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd.
BNP Paribas
10 IDBI Bank Ltd. Nainital Bank Ltd. Calyon Bank
11 Indian Bank Ltd. Ratnakar Bank Ltd.
Chinatrust Commercial
Bank
12
Indian Overseas
Bank Ltd.
SBI Commercial and
International Bank Ltd.
Citibank N.A.
13
Oriental Bank of
Commerce Ltd. South Indian Bank Ltd.
DBS Bank
14
Punjab and Sind
Bank Ltd.
Ta
milnad Mercantile
Bank Ltd. Deutsche Bank AG
15
Punjab National Bank
Ltd. HSBC
Reserve Bank of India
Bank
Financial Institution
Scheduled
Commercial
banks
Co
-
operative
credit
institutions
Public Sector
banks
Private
Sector banks
Foreign
banks
Regional
Rural Banks
Urban
Cooperative
Banks
Rural Cooperative
Credit Institutions
All India
Financial
Institution
State Level
Institution
Other
Institution

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 22
16 Syndicate Bank Ltd.
JPMorgan Chase
Bank
17 UCO Bank Ltd. Krung Thai Bank
18
Union Bank of India
Ltd. Mashreq Bank psc
19
United Bank of India
Ltd.
Mizuho Corporate
Bank
20 Vijaya Bank Ltd.
Royal Bank of
Scotland
21
State Bank of Bikaner
and Jaipur Ltd. Shinhan Bank
22
State Bank of
Hyderabad Ltd. Société Générale
23
State Bank of India
Ltd. Sonali Bank
24 State Bank of My
sore
Ltd.
Standard Chartered
Bank
25
State Bank of
Patiyala Ltd.
State Bank of
Mauritius
26 State Bank
of
Travankore UBS
27 VTB
Source: http://finance.indiamart.com/investment_in_india/scheduled_commercial_banks.html
TABLE 1: Scheduled Commercial Banks Operating In India
5. CHALLENGES FACED BY INDIAN BANKING INDUSTRY
Developing countries like India, still has a huge number of people who do not have access to
banking services due to scattered and fragmented locations. But if we talk about those people
who are availing banking services, their expectations are raising as the level of services are
increasing due to the emergence of Information Technology and competition. Since, foreign
banks are playing in Indian market, the number of services offered has increased and banks have
laid emphasis on meeting the customer expectations.
Now, the existing situation has created various challenges and opportunity for Indian Commercial
Banks. In order to encounter the general scenario of banking industry we need to understand the
challenges and opportunities lying with banking industry of India.
5.1 Rural Market
Banking in India is generally fairly mature in terms of supply, product range and reach, even
though reach in rural India still remains a challenge for the private sector and foreign banks. In
terms of quality of assets and capital adequacy, Indian banks are considered to have clean,
strong and transparent balance sheets relative to other banks in comparable economies in its
region.
Consequently, we have seen some examples of inorganic growth strategy adopted by some
nationalized and private sector banks to face upcoming challenges in banking industry of India.
For example recently, ICICI Bank Ltd. merged the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. in order to increase its
reach in rural market and market share significantly. State Bank of India (SBI), the largest public
sector bank in India has also adopted the same strategy to retain its position. It is in the process
of acquiring its associates. Recently, SBI has merged State Bank of Indore in 2010.

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 23
5.1 Management of Risks
The growing competition increases the competitiveness among banks. But, existing global
banking scenario is seriously posing threats for Indian banking industry. We have already
witnessed the bankruptcy of some foreign banks.
According to Shrieves (1992), there is a positive association between changes in risk and capital.
Research studied the large sample of banks and results reveal that regulation was partially
effective during the period covered. Moreover, it was concluded that changes in bank capital over
the period studied was risk-based [1].
Wolgast, (2001) studied the Merger and acquisition activity among financial firms. The author
focused bank supervisors in context with success of mergers, risk management, financial system
stability and market liquidity. The study concluded that large institutions are able to maintain a
superior level of risk management [2].
Al-Tamimi and Al-Mazrooei (2007) examined the risk management practices and techniques in
dealing with different types of risk. Moreover, they compared risk management practices between
the two sets of banks. The study found the three most important types of risk i.e. commercial
banks foreign exchange risk, followed by credit risk, and operating risk [3].
Sensarma and Jayadev (2009) used selected accounting ratios as risk management variables
and attempted to gauge the overall risk management capability of banks. They used multivariate
statistical techniques to summarize these accounting ratios. Moreover, the paper also analyzed
the impact of these risk management scores on stock returns through regression analysis.
Researchers found that Indian banks' risk management capabilities have been improving over
time. Returns on the banks' stocks appeared to be sensitive to risk management capability of
banks. The study suggest that banks want to enhance shareholder wealth will have to focus on
successfully managing various risks [4].
5.3 Growth of Banking
Zhao, Casu and Ferrari (2008) used a balanced panel data set covering the period of 1992-2004
and employing a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist Total Factor Productivity
(TFP) index. The empirical study indicated that, after an initial adjustment phase, the Indian
banking industry experienced sustained productivity growth, which was driven mainly by
technological progress. Banks' ownership structure does not seem to matter as much as
increased competition in TFP growth. Foreign banks appear to have acted as technological
innovators when competition increased, which added to the competitive pressure in the banking
market. Finally, our results also indicate an increase in risk-taking behaviour, along with the whole
deregulation process [5].
It was found in the study of Goyal and Joshi (2011a) that small and local banks face difficulty in
bearing the impact of global economy therefore, they need support and it is one of the reasons for
merger. Some private banks used mergers as a strategic tool for expanding their horizons. There
is huge potential in rural markets of India, which is not yet explored by the major banks. Therefore
ICICI Bank Ltd. has used mergers as their expansion strategy in rural market. They are
successful in making their presence in rural India. It strengthens their network across
geographical boundary, improves customer base and market share [6].
5.4 Market Discipline and Transparency
According to Fernando (2011) transparency and disclosure norms as part of internationally
accepted corporate governance practices are assuming greater importance in the emerging
environment. Banks are expected to be more responsive and accountable to the investors. Banks
have to disclose in their balance sheets a plethora of information on the maturity profiles of assets
and liabilities, lending to sensitive sectors, movements in NPAs, capital, provisions, shareholdings
of the government, value of investment in India and abroad, operating and profitability indicators,

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 24
the total investments made in the equity share, units of mutual funds, bonds, debentures,
aggregate advances against shares and so on [7].
5.5 Human Resource Management
Gelade and Ivery (2003) examined relationships between human resource management (HRM),
work climate, and organizational performance in the branch network of a retail bank. Significant
correlations were found between work climate, human resource practices, and business
performance. The results showed that the correlations between climate and performance cannot
be explained by their common dependence on HRM factors, and that the data are consistent with
a mediation model in which the effects of HRM practices on business performance are partially
mediated by work climate [8].
Bartel (2004) studied the relationship between human resource management and establishment
performance of employees on the manufacturing sector. Using a unique longitudinal dataset
collected through site visits to branch operations of a large bank, the author extends his research
to the service sector. Because branch managers had considerable discretion in managing their
operations and employees, the HRM environment could vary across branches. Site visits
provided specific examples of managerial practices that affected branch performance. An
analysis of responses to the bank’s employee attitude survey that controls for unobserved branch
and manager characteristics shows a positive relationship between branch performance and
employees’ satisfaction with the quality of performance evaluation, feedback, and recognition at
the branch—the “incentives” dimension of a high-performance work system. In some fixed effects
specifications, satisfaction with the quality of communications at the branch was also important
[9].
5.6 Global Banking
It is practically and fundamentally impossible for any nation to exclude itself from world economy.
Therefore, for sustainable development, one has to adopt integration process in the form of
liberalization and globalization as India spread the red carpet for foreign firms in 1991. The impact
of globalization becomes challenges for the domestic enterprises as they are bound to compete
with global players.
If we look at the Indian Banking Industry, then we find that there are 36 foreign banks operating in
India, which becomes a major challenge for Nationalized and private sector banks. These foreign
banks are large in size, technically advanced and having presence in global market, which gives
more and better options and services to Indian traders.
5.7 Financial Inclusion
Financial inclusion has become a necessity in today’s business environment. Whatever is
produced by business houses, that has to be under the check from various perspectives like
environmental concerns, corporate governance, social and ethical issues. Apart from it to bridge
the gap between rich and poor, the poor people of the country should be given proper attention to
improve their economic condition.
Dev (2006) stated that financial inclusion is significant from the point of view of living conditions of
poor people, farmers, rural non-farm enterprises and other vulnerable groups. Financial inclusion,
in terms of access to credit from formal institutions to various social groups. Apart from formal
banking institutions, which should look at inclusion both as a business opportunity and social
responsibility, the author conclude that role of the self-help group movement and microfinance
institutions is important to improve financial inclusion. The study study suggested that this
requires new regulatory procedures and de-politicisation of the financial system [10].
5.8 Employees’ Retention
The banking industry has transformed rapidly in the last ten years, shifting from transactional and
customer service-oriented to an increasingly aggressive environment, where competition for
revenue is on top priority. Long-time banking employees are becoming disenchanted with the

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 25
industry and are often resistant to perform up to new expectations. The diminishing employee
morale results in decreased revenue. Due to the intrinsically close ties between staff and clients,
losing those employees completely can mean the loss of valuable customer relationships. The
retail banking industry is concerned about employee retention from all levels: from tellers to
executives to customer service representatives because competition is always moving in to hire
them away.
The competition to retain key employees is intense. Top-level executives and HR departments
spend large amounts of time, effort, and money trying to figure out how to keep their people from
leaving.
Sekaran, U. (1989) studied a sample of 267 bank employees, this study traced the paths to the
job satisfaction of employees at the workplace through the quality of life factors of job involvement
and sense of competence. Results indicated that personal, job, and organizational climate factors
influenced the ego investment or job involvement of people in their jobs, which in turn influenced
the intra-psychic reward of sense of competence that they experienced, which then directly
influenced employees' job satisfaction [11].
Mitchell, Holtom, Lee and Graske (2001) asserted in their study that people often leave for
reasons unrelated to their jobs. In many cases, unexpected events or shocks are the cause.
Employees also often stay because of attachments and their sense of fit, both on the job and in
their community [12].
Saxena and Monika (2010) studied a case of 5 companies out of 1000 organizations and 8752
respondents surveyed across 800 cities in India by Business Today. The survey was on nine
basic parameters like career and personal growth, company prestige, training, financial
compensation and benefits and merit based performance evaluation. It was concluded that the
biggest challenge for organizations is that when new employees appointed, it is difficult to merge
them in organizational culture. Each organization has its own unique culture and most often,
when brought together, these cultures clash. When there is no retention, employees point to
issues such as identity, communication problems, human resources problems, ego clashes, and
intergroup conflicts, which all fall under the category of “cultural differences” [13].
5.9 Customer Retention
Levesque and McDougall (1996) investigated the major determinants of customer satisfaction
and future intentions in the retail bank sector. They identified the determinants which include
service quality dimensions (e.g. getting it right the first time), service features (e.g. competitive
interest rates), service problems, service recovery and products used. It was found, in particular,
that service problems and the bank’s service recovery ability have a major impact on customer
satisfaction and intentions to switch [14].
Clark (1997) studied the impact of customer-employee relationships on customer retention rates
in a major UK retail bank. He revealed that employee and customer perceptions of service quality
are related to customer retention rates and that employee and customer perceptions of service
quality are related to each other [15].
Clark (2002) examined the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational climate
and customer retention in a specific service setting, viz. a major UK retail bank. Employees’
perceptions of the practices and procedures in relation to customer care at their branch were
investigated using a case study approach. The findings revealed that there is a relationship
between employees’ perceptions of organizational climate and customer retention at a micro-
organizational level. He suggested that organizational climate can be subdivided into five climate
themes and that, within each climate theme, there are several dimensions that are critical to
customer retention [16].

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International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 26
Hansemark and Albinsson (2004) explored how the employees of a company experience the
concepts of customer satisfaction and retention. They used phenomenological method, allowing
the informants’ own interpretations to be discovered. Satisfaction was discussed from three
perspectives: definition of the concept, how to recognise when a customer is satisfied, and how to
enhance satisfaction. The informants’ experience pertaining to these three categories varied, and
a total of seven ways to define, recognise or enhance satisfaction were discovered. These were:
service, feeling, chemistry, relationship and confidence, dialogue, complaints and retention. All
except the first two of these categories of experience were found to enhance retention, implying
that the informants have found that strategies for enhancing both satisfaction and retention are
similar [17]. The strongest connection between retention and satisfaction strategies turned out to
be in terms of relationship and confidence.
5.10 Environmental Concerns
It is quite clear from the recently formed Copenhagen Climate Council (CCC) that there is a
severe need for environmental awareness among all the countries of the world. CCC published
Thought Leadership Series on Climate Change which is a collection of inspirational, concise and
clearly argued pieces from some of the world's most renowned thinkers and business leaders on
climate change. The objective of the pieces is to assist in enhancing the public and political
awareness of the actions that could have a significant impact on global emissions growth and to
disseminate the message that it is time to act. The Thought Leadership Series was aimed at
explaining and spreading awareness of the key elements in the business and policy response to
the climate problem. The rationale for the Thought Leadership Series was to change the focus of
people.
5.11 Social and Ethical Aspects
There are some banks, which proactively undertake the responsibility to bear the social and
ethical aspects of banking. This is a challenge for commercial banks to consider the these
aspects in their working. Apart from profit maximization, commercial banks are supposed to
support those organizations, which have some social concerns.
Benedikter (2011) defines Social Banks as “banks with a conscience”. They focus on investing in
community, providing opportunities to the disadvantaged, and supporting social, environmental,
and ethical agendas. Social banks try to invest their money only in endeavours that promote the
greater good of society, instead of those, which generate private profit just for a few. He has also
explained the main difference between mainstream banks and social banks that mainstream
banks are in most cases focused solely on the principle of profit maximization whereas, social
banking implements the triple principle of profit-people-planet [18].
Goyal and Joshi (2011b) have concluded in their study on social and ethical aspects of Banking
Industry that Banks can project themselves as a socially and ethically oriented organization by
disbursement of loans merely to those organizations, which has social, ethical and environmental
concerns [19].
6. CONCLUSION
Over the years, it has been observed that clouds of trepidation and drops of growth are two
important phenomena of market, which frequently changes in different sets of conditions. The pre
and post liberalization era has witnessed various environmental changes which directly affects
the aforesaid phenomena. It is evident that post liberalization era has spread new colors of
growth in India, but simultaneously it has also posed some challenges.
This article discusses the various challenges and opportunities like rural market, transparency,
customer expectations, management of risks, growth in banking sector, human factor, global
banking, environmental concern, social, ethical issues, employee and customer retentions. Banks
are striving to combat the competition. The competition from global banks and technological
innovation has compelled the banks to rethink their policies and strategies.

Dr. K.A. Goyal & Vijay Joshi
International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume (3) : Issue (1) : 2012 27
7. SUGGESTIONS
As per the above discussion, we can say that the biggest challenge for banking industry is to
serve the mass market of India. Companies have shifted their focus from product to customer.
The better we understand our customers, the more successful we will be in meeting their needs.
In order to mitigate above mentioned challenges Indian banks must cut their cost of their
services. Another aspect to encounter the challenges is product differentiation. Apart from
traditional banking services, Indian banks must adopt some product innovation so that they can
compete in gamut of competition. Technology up gradation is an inevitable aspect to face
challenges.
The level of consumer awareness is significantly higher as compared to previous years. Now-a-
days they need internet banking, mobile banking and ATM services.
Expansion of branch size in order to increase market share is another tool to combat competitors.
Therefore, Indian nationalized and private sector banks must spread their wings towards global
markets as some of them have already done it. Indian banks are trustworthy brands in Indian
market; therefore, these banks must utilize their brand equity as it is an valuable asset for them.
8. REFERENCES
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Banking & Finance, 16(2): 439–457, 1992.
[2] Wolgast, M. “M&As in the financial industry: A matter of concern for bank supervisors?” Journal of
Financial Regulation and Compliance, 9(3): 225-236, 2001.
[3] Al-Tamimi, H. A. H and Al-Mazrooei, F. M. “Banks' risk management: A comparison study of UAE
national and foreign banks”. Journal of Risk Finance, 8(4): 394-409, 2007.
[4] Sensarma, R. and Jayadev, “Are bank stocks sensitive to risk management?” Journal of Risk
Finance, 10(1): 7-22, M. 2009.
[5] Zhao, T., Casu, B. and Ferrari, A. “Deregulation and Productivity Growth: A Study of The
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