A recent press report said that the financial inclusion measures and increased customer focus has significantly changed the Indian Banking scene from class banking to mass banking.
In his statement, Mr. S. K. Chatterjee, director of Lucknow – based Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) said that India still has a great potential for retail banking expansion. He mentioned that retail assets have contributed about 22 per cent of total banking assets and about retail loans have contributed 6 per cent to GDP in India compared to the 15 per cent in China and 24 per cent in Thailand.
Mr. P.K. Bansal, General Manager of Union Bank of India, said that the Global banking industry is currently facing tough challenges. However, Indian economy is growing gradually due to the depressed capital market conditions, high interest rates and slow GDP growth but it is growing steadily.
Mr. P. K.Pattanaik, Chairman of Aryavart Gramin Bank, said that India population has an increasing middle class of 250 – 300 million people. About 60 per cent of the population has access to banks while only 15 per cent of them have loan accounts and 70 per cent of the farmers do not have any access to proper sources of credit. He said that these issues were posing a greater potential for the banking system.