Banking Sector in India

Introduction

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s banking sector is sufficiently capitalised and well-regulated. The financial and economic conditions in the country are far superior to any other country in the world. Credit, market and liquidity risk studies suggest that Indian banks are generally resilient and have withstood the global downturn well.

Indian banking industry has recently witnessed the roll out of innovative banking models like payments and small finance banks. RBI’s new measures may go a long way in helping the restructuring of the domestic banking industry.

The digital payments system in India has evolved the most among 25 countries with India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) being the only system at level five in the Faster Payments Innovation Index (FPII).*

Market Size

The Indian banking system consists of 12 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks, 46 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1485 urban cooperative banks and 96,000 rural cooperative banks in addition to cooperative credit institutions As of September 2021, the total number of ATMs in India reached 213,145.

In FY18-FY21, bank assets across sectors increased. Total assets across the banking sector (including public and private sector banks) increased to US$ 2.48 trillion in FY21.

In FY21, total assets in the public and private banking sectors were US$ 1,602.65 billion and US$ 878.56 billion, respectively.

During FY16-FY21, bank credit increased at a CAGR of 0.29%. As of FY21, total credit extended surged to US$ 1,487.60 billion. During FY16-FY21, deposits grew at a CAGR of 12.38% and reached US$ 2.06 trillion by FY21.

According to the RBI, bank credit stood at Rs. 110.46 trillion (US$ 1.47 trillion) and credit to non-food industries stood at Rs. 109.82 trillion (US$ 1.46 trillion) as of September 24, 2021.

Investments/Developments

Key investments and developments in India’s banking industry include:

• As of November 03, 2021, the number of bank accounts—opened under the government’s flagship financial inclusion drive ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)’—reached 43.81 crore and deposits in the Jan Dhan bank accounts totalled >Rs. 1.48 trillion (US$ 19.89 billion).
• On November 09, 2021, RBI announced the launch of its first global hackathon 'HARBINGER 2021 – Innovation for Transformation' with the theme ‘Smarter Digital Payments’.
• In November 2021, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 9.98% stake in KFin Technologies for Rs. 310 crore (US$ 41.62 million).
• In July 2021, Google Pay for Business has enabled small merchants to access credit through tie-up with the digital lending platform for MSMEs—FlexiLoans.
• In December 2020, in response to the RBI’s cautionary message, the Digital Lenders’ Association issued a revised code of conduct for digital lending.
• On November 6, 2020, WhatsApp started UPI payments service in India on receiving the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) approval to ‘Go Live’ on UPI in a graded manner.
• In October 2020, HDFC Bank and Apollo Hospitals partnered to launch the ‘HealthyLife Programme’, a holistic healthcare solution that makes healthy living accessible and affordable on Apollo’s digital platform.
• In 2019, banking and financial services witnessed 32 M&A (merger and acquisition) activities worth US$ 1.72 billion.
• In March 2020, State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest lender, raised US$ 100 million in green bonds through private placement.
• In February 2020, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for continuation of the process of recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) by providing minimum regulatory capital to RRBs for another year beyond 2019-20 - till 2020-21 to those RRBs which are unable to maintain minimum Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9% as per the regulatory norms prescribed by RBI.

Government Initiatives

• In November 2021, RBI launched the ‘RBI Retail Direct Scheme’ for retail investors to increase retail participation in government securities.
• The RBI introduced new auto debit rules with a mandatory additional factor of authentication (AFA), effective from October 01, 2021, to improve the safety and security of card transactions, as part of its risk mitigation measures.
• In September 2021, Central Banks of India and Singapore announced to link their digital payment systems by July 2022 to initiate instant and low-cost fund transfers.
• In August 2021, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi launched e-RUPI, a person and purpose-specific digital payment solution. e-RUPI is a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher that is sent to the beneficiary’s cell phone. Users of this one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher at the service provider without the usage of a card, digital payments app, or internet banking access.
• As per Union Budget 2021-22, the government will disinvest IDBI Bank and privatise two public sector banks.
• Government smoothly carried out consolidation, reducing the number of Public Sector Banks by eight.

Achievements

Following are the achievements of the Government:

• In October 2021, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 4.21 billion transactions worth Rs. 7.71 trillion (US$ 103.9 billion).
• According to the RBI, India’s foreign exchange reserves reached US$ 642.20 billion as of October 29, 2021.
• To improve infrastructure in villages, 204,000 point of sale (PoS) terminals have been sanctioned from the Financial Inclusion Fund by National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD).
• The number of transactions through immediate payment service (IMPS) reached 430.67 million and amounted to Rs. 3.70 trillion (US$ 49.75 billion) in October 2021.

Road Ahead

Enhanced spending on infrastructure, speedy implementation of projects and continuation of reforms are expected to provide further impetus to growth in the banking sector. All these factors suggest that India’s banking sector is poised for a robust growth as rapidly growing businesses will turn to banks for their credit needs.

Also, the advancement in technology has brought mobile and internet banking services to the fore. The banking sector is laying greater emphasis on providing improved services to their clients and upgrading their technology infrastructure to enhance customer’s overall experience as well as give banks a competitive edge.

India’s digital lending stood at US$ 75 billion in FY18 and is estimated to reach US$ 1 trillion by FY23 driven by the five-fold increase in the digital disbursements. By 2025, India's fintech market is expected to reach Rs. 6.2 trillion (US$ 83.48 billion).

References: Media Reports, Press releases, Reserve Bank of India, Press Information Bureau, www.pmjdy.gov.in

Note: Conversion rate used in November 2021, Rs. 1 = US$ 0.01336

Note: * - according to an FIS report, ^# - Microfinances Institution Network

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.