Indian Banking Sector: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

A distinguished panel of managing directors and chief executive officers of some of the well-known banks in the country responded to the theme on the challenges and opportunities faced by the Indian banking sector in the liberalized environment. The contributors addressed the following issues: Financial reforms with specific reference to Indian banking industry focusing on implications to the existing players, new entrants, multinationals, and consumer behaviour. New and emerging opportunities: consumer and commercial banking. Competition: players, intensity, market size, profitability, and growth. Responses to challenges with reference to restructuring, automation, product delivery, and process reengineering. Issues related to governance, regulation, and audit. Product engineering, product design, and product delivery. Consumer expectations, feedback, cross-selling, customer relationship management(CRM), market segmentation, marketing, branding, and new products introduction. HR related issues: VR5, compensation, education and training, empowerment, and career plan. Future scenario: Broad trends in the next five years and the expected position. E-banking and its importance. Salient features of the responses included: The Indian banking sector is at an exciting point in its evolution. The opportu- nities to enter new business and new markets and to deliver higher levels of customer service are immense. As the Indian banks position themselves as financial service providers, banking business is getting redefined. Technology is unsettling the earlier business processes and customer behaviour is undergoing change. These have enhanced the forces of competition. Competitive advantage can be achieved through harnessing the potentialavailable in the employees by creating a positive work culture and enlisting the support of all the employees to the organizational goals. Indian banks have adopted better operational strategies and upgraded their skills. They have withstood the initial challenges and have become more adaptive to the changing environment. In the complex and fast changing environment, the only sustainable competitive advantage for banks is to give the customer an optimum blend of technology and traditional service. Four trends are fundamentally altering the banking industry: consolidation, globalization of operations, development of new technologies, and universali- zation of banking.

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