The economy could not function without retail banking.

Retail banking is when a bank executes transactions directly with consumers, rather than transactions with corporations or other banks. Offering financial services, products related to deposits and assets to individual customers for personal consumption. Banks concentrate on various segments like professional, housewives, pensioner, children, and salaried class. Services offered are savings transactional accounts Mortgages Personal loans Debit cards and credit cards

These services make difference from investment banking, wholesale banking. Fixed, current / savings accounts on the liabilities side; and mortgages, loans (e.g., personal, housing, auto, and educational) on the assets side, are the more important of the products offered by banks. Related services include credit cards, or depository services. Todays retail banking sector is characterized by three basic characteristics:

multiple products (deposits, credit cards, insurance, investments and securities) multiple channels of distribution (call centre, branch, Internet and kiosk); and multiple customer groups (consumer, small business, and corporate).

Retail banking in India: Retail banking in India has fast emerged as one of the major drivers of the overall banking industry and has witnessed enormous growth in the recent past. The Retail Banking Report encompasses extensive study & analysis of this rapidly growing sector. It primarily covers analysis of the present status, current trends, major issues & challenges in the growth of the retail banking sector. This report helps in Banks, financial institutions, MNC Banks, academicians, consultants and researchers to have a better understanding of the booming opportunities in retail banking in India. Major findings With recession departing away from away global economy, opportunities are slowly emerging in emerging markets. Since emerging markets, except China, were less depending upon US for growth; are first to come out of recession eclipse. Growth opportunities in banking, especially retail segment is set to witness fast growth due to high consumption. The higher growth of retail lending in emerging economies is attributable to fast growth of personal wealth, favourable

demographic profile, rapid development in information technology, the conducive macroeconomic environment, financial market reforms, and several micro-level supply side factors. The retail banking strategies of banks are undergoing major transformation, as banks adopt a mix of strategies like organic growth, acquisitions and alliances. This has resulted in a paradigm shift in the marketing strategies of the banks. Public Sector Banks players are adopting aggressive strategies, leveraging their rural branch network and their customer vase to earn a larger share of the retail pie. Banks are also going in for innovative strategies like cross selling, packaged selling of retail products and technology based banking. At the same time, new foreign players are also entering this high growth sector Retail Banking sector is expected to grow at a rate of 30% in the coming years. The banking sector as a whole is witnessing structural changes in regulatory frameworks and securitization. Global spending on retail banking technology is expected to increase by 24 percent over the next five years to hit $132 billion. This requires expansion and diversification of retail product portfolio, better penetration and faster service mechanism. Global investment in technology to allow customers to access banking services via the internet is expected to experience growth of 33 per cent from 2010 to 2015, to hit $9.7 billion. Indian retail banking segment includes: Cardscredit, debit and ATM, housing loans, personal loans, consumption loans, education loans, vehicle loans insurance, demat services, online services. Most banks have retail as of around 20% of their total lending portfolio and are growing at an unnatural rate of 30 to 35% per annum, retail lending has been the key profit driver and spectacular innovation in the banking sector in recent times. This seminar is a perfect opportunity to discuss various issues related to retail banking and also to provide solutions for the global financial crisis and economic recession. Further, the intended seminar will provide answers to the questions like what lessons can be learnt from the economic meltdown, how flexible have Indian banks been during the worldwide financial crisis and how increasing inflation is going to affect the growth of retail banking. This seminar will be much thought provoking to make the Indian banking industry more competitive, transparent. INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO: By international standards, however, there is still much scope for retail banking in India. After all, retail loans constitute less than seven per cent of GDP in India vis--vis about 35 per cent for other Asian economies South Korea (55 per cent), Taiwan (52 per cent), Malaysia (33 per cent) Thailand (18 per cent).

As retail banking in India is still growing from modest base, there is a likelihood that the growth numbers seem to get somewhat exaggerated. The comparison with the west is even more staggering. Of all the consumer expenditure in India in 2010, less than 2% was through credit cards; the corresponding US figure is 20%. It shows that there is lot of scope for growth and development of retail banking in India. Status of retail banking in India viz-a viz International scenario, growth drivers of retail banking in India, Opportunities & challenges of retail banking in India, Regulatory frameworks for sustainable industry growth, Potential for retail in India, Foreign banks participation in retail banking, Competitive scenario. Going by international standards, a large portion of the Indian population is simply not bankable taking profitability into consideration. On the other hand, the financial services market is highly over-leveraged in India. Competition is fierce, particularly from local private banks such as HDFC and ICICI, in the business of home, car and consumer loans. There, precisely lie the pitfalls of such explosive growth. All banks are targeting the fluffiest segment i.e. the upwardly mobile urban salaried class. Although the players are spreading their operations into segments like self- employed and the semi-urban rich, it is an open secret that the big city Indian yuppies form the most profitable segment. Over-dependence on this segment is bound to bring in inflexibility in the business.