Dear Aspirants,
Commercial banking of the western type is a recent development in
India. But banking was not unknown to India. From very ancient times
indigenous banking and money lending existed in India in the form of family or
individual business. The ancient Hindu Scriptures refer to their existence in the
Vedic period.
Chanakya’s Arthasasthra (about 300 B.C.) has several references to
show that there were in existence powerful guilds of merchant bankers who
received deposits, advanced loans and carried on other banking functions.
During the Moghul period, bankers were fairly prominent in the financing of
trade and the use of instruments of trade. They rendered great service to the
East India Company in the early days of British occupation. The revenue of the
East India Company was collected primarily through the indigenous bankers of
various districts. From the early Vedic period right through the Moghul period
as well as that of the East India Company’s rule the money lenders and the
indigenous bankers conducted business similar to that of modern bankers.
All through the period of ancient Indian history, moneylenders who
were called either bankers, or seths, or shroffs are recorded to have carried on a roaring business in money lending and banking.
The first European Bank in India was started in Calcutta in 1770 by one
of the leading agency houses viz., Messers Alexander & Company under the
name “The Bank of Hindoostan”. The Bank was started mostly to meet the
needs of foreign trade during the period. The Bank of Hindoostan failed in the
year 1832, with the fall of the agency house of Messers. Alexander &
Company.
Banking in the modern sense came to be established in India with the
setting up of three Presidency Banks – The Bank of Bengal in 1806, The Bank
of Bombay in 1840 and The Bank of Madras in 1843 by the respective
Presidency Governments of Bengal, Bombay and Madras. The Presidency
Banks were successors to agency houses which invariably combined banking
with their commercial and trading activities, and were floated by the East India
Company to facilitate the borrowings of the Government and maintenance of
credit. These Presidency Banks were really like central banks for their
respective areas as they performed central banking functions and each-was the Government ‘ s banker in its area.
Pre-Independence Period
With the enactment of the Joint Stock Companies Act 1850, Indian joint
stock banks began to be floated. The first Indian bank was Oudh Commercial
Bank started in 1881. It was followed by the Punjab National Bank in 1894.
The Swadeshi Movement, prompted Indians to start many new banking
institutions. The number of joint stock banks in India increased remarkably
during the boom of 1906-13. The Peoples Bank of India Ltd., The Bank of
India Ltd., The Central Bank of India Ltd., The Indian Bank Ltd., and The
Bank of Baroda Ltd., were started during this period. The boom continued till it
was overtaken by the crash of 1913-17, a severe crisis faced by the Indian joint
stock banks.
The Indian Companies Act was passed in 1913. It contained only very
few regulations specially applicable to banks. In 1920, the Imperial Bank of
India Act was passed which brought into existence on January 27, 1921 the
Imperial Bank of India. The Imperial Bank of India was the result of the fusion
of the three Presidency Banks. The Reserve Bank of India was started as a
private shareholders bank in April 1935 to act as the central bank of the
country.
The Indian Companies Act 1913 was amended in 1936 to bring in
control over the mushroom growth and failure of the banks in the country. But
it was not sufficiently effective.
The two World Wars proved a boom to the banking industry when many
large and small banks were started. A good proportion of them stood the test of time and survived the subsequent crises, but at least an equal number of them failed. Though the Reserve Bank of India was constituted in 1935, much could not be done in respect of bank failures.
Post-Independence Period
The post-independence period had witnessed a massive growth of the
Indian banking system. The first step taken in this direction was nationalisation of the Reserve Bank of India in September, 1948.
To have sound and balanced growth of banking in the country, the
Banking Regulation Act 1949 was passed. The Act, the first of its kind to
regulate the banks has extensively enlarged the control of the Reserve Bank of India over the banking industry. It came into effect from March 16, 1949. The Banking Regulation Act gave wide powers to the Reserve Bank of India to
regulate, supervise and develop the banking system. The fifties witnessed the
consolidation of banking structure and the emergence of big commercial banks through amalgamations and mergers.
The All India Rural Credit Survey Committee appointed by the Reserve
Bank of India, reviewed the rural credit scene in India in 1954 and made a few
major recommendations for improving rural credit. On the basis of its
recommendations the Imperial Bank of India was nationalised and renamed as
State Bank of India from July 1, 1955, based on the provisions of the State
Bank of India Act 1955. The State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act was
passed in 1959 enabling State Bank of India to take over the then eight state
associated banks as its subsidiaries. Of the eight banks, the State Bank of
Bikaner and State Bank of Jaipur were merged into one bank: the other state associated banks which were made subsidiaries consisted of State Bank of
Patiala, State Bank of Saurashtra, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of
Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore.
To maintain the confidence of the public in the banks and to stabilise the
banking system, the Deposit insurance Corporation was formed in 1962.
Compulsory mergers and amalgamation of the banks of weak financial
structure with other healthy banks were undertaken on a massive scale since the sixties.The Indian banks made rapid progress in the sixties. In a very limited scale, a few of the Indian banks established their branches abroad. In December 1967, the scheme of Social Control over banks was announced in the Parliament. The basic objectives of social control were to ensure an equitableand purposive distribution of credit within the resources available, keeping in view the relative priorities of developmental needs in the country. It was to ensure without actual take over of banks the achievements of those social ends into public ownership, that nationalisation could conceivably secure. Social Control brought about a change in the outlook. The Boards of
Directors of the banks were of bankers, reconstituted giving adequate
representations to various interests like agriculture, small scale industries etc.
Banking was professionalised by making the Chief Executive of the banks as a
full-time employee.
Post-Nationalisation Period
The scheme of Social Control initiated in December 1967 was found to
be unsatisfactory and inadequate by the Central Government. Banks were to be adequately motivated towards speedy achievements of the social objectives of meeting the legitimate requirements of the weaker sections of society. Accordingly fourteen major Indian commercial banks each with a deposit of Rs. 5000 lakhs or more, were nationalised on 19th July, 1969. After eleven years of the first phase of banks nationalisation, on 15th April, 1980, the ownership of six more Indian private sector banks each having deposits of Rs.20000 lakhs or more were taken over by the Government of India.
According to the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, the
nationalisation of major banks was an important step for the mobilisation of
people’s savings, to be channalised towards productive purposes: There is an
added assurance about the development of the national resources under
Government ownership.
The statement of objects and reasons appended to the Banking
Companies (Acquisition & Transfer of Undertakings) Bill 1969 says: The banking system touches the lives of millions and has
to be inspired by a larger social purpose and has to subserve
national priorities and objectives, such as rapid growth in
agriculture, small industries and exports, raising of employment
level, encouragement of new entrepreneurs and the development
of the backward areas. For this purpose, it is necessary for the
Government to take direct responsibility for the extension and
diversification of banking services and for the working of a
substantial part of the banking system.
The main consideration that led to the nationalisation of the second
batch of banks in April 1980 were to speed up the implementation of the 20-
point Economic Programme, raising the share of priority sector advances in the total bank credit and secure effective control over the implementation of credit policy by the banking system.
The preamble to the Ordinance for the Acquisition and Transfer of six
banking undertakings in 1980 states that these banks have been taken over
³having regard to their size, resources, coverage and organization in order
further to control the economy, to meet progressively and serve better the needs of the development of the economy and promote the welfare of the people in conformity with the policy of the state towards securing the principles laid down in clauses (b) and (c) of Article 39 of the Constitution´.
Dealing with the socio-economic objectives underlying the
nationalisation of banks, the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic
Affairs) Government of India has stated:
Banks have, in fact, traversed a long distance in terms of
territory, function and segments of society they serve. They have
moved from towns to villages, from large and medium industry to
small business and to peddlers of sundryware; from qualified
professionals to rickshaw-pullers, to barbers and washermen, to
convicts still in jail and ex-convicts, to tribals and physically
handicapped, from the privileged to under-privileged and on to
un-privileged; in short to all those who work for a living or
looking for opportunities to work for a living and believe in
dignity of labour and self-respect.5
The broad objectives of nationalised banks can be summarised as under:
To usher in faster economic growth of the country through mobilisation of
savings and channelizing them into productive uses.
To improve the economic well- being of the society at large and to help the
socially and economically downtrodden people in particular.
To reduce the imbalance in economic growth among different regions and
thereby facilitate a more balanced growth.To manage properly as trustees, the funds mobililsed from the public. To maintain efficiency both in terms of
(a) rendering service to various types of customers and
(b) operations.
To render professionalised management services.
As a result of the nationalisation of banks in 1969 and 1980, the total
number of public sector banks in the country has increased to 28. These include State Bank of India, its seven subsidiaries and the twenty nationalised banks. The public sector banks accounted for 91 percent of the total deposits and credits of all the commercial banks in India in April 1980.6
The focus of banks since nationalisation primarily has been on widening
and deepening the banking system and effecting a structural transformation in the deployment of commercial bank credit in pursuance of the plan objectives of increasing the financial savings, alleviation of poverty, modernisation of agriculture, small and cottage industries. Banking has thus emerged as an effective catalytic agent of social and economic change.
All the Best !
Avision
Howrah, Liluah & Kolkata
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