Indian Financial Sector: Focus on Indian Banking Environment

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Introduction - Financial sector overview

Indian Financial Sector is a well diversified arena experiencing high growth and development. The financial sector of India is comprised of commercial banks, insurance companies, non-banking cooperations, pension and mutual fund houses and lot more other financial institutions serving the Indian Economy. However, the financial sector is a major ly dominated by the Bankin Sector where the commercial banks comprise of 60 percent of total assets held by the financial system followed by Insurance Sector. Apart from the Banks and Insurance Companies, financial sector also comprise of Non-Banking Finance Companies also known as NBFC which in operate in specialized segments of micro finance, infrastructural finance although few of them also have licence to accept deposits. (Secreteriat)

India's central bank position (role and regulation):

The regulation of Indian banking system is performed by Reseve Bank of India. Being known as lender of last resort, RBI keeps supervision on functioning of commercial banks and performs the following function:

 Printing Currency

 Banker to The Government

 Supervisory powers over Commercial banks

 Taking monetray steps both quantitative and qualitative to ensure economic stability

Printing Currency:

RBI has the sole authority to print currency notes and introduce them to the moentary system of the country. No other government agency has the right to print the currency and thus, RBI enjoys monopoly but in the interest of the nation.

Banker to the Government:

RBI acts as a banker both to State and Central Government. Just like the relatonship which commercial banks carries with general public, RBI performs same banking function for the government b...

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...ial crisis, Arab Spring, Euro zone crisis).

After the global financial crisis, it is now the Euro Zone Crisis and the Arab Spring(also known as Arab Awakening) is the new threat to Indian Economy. Where the US financial crisis, saw a record rise in customer’s default on sub-prime mortgage defaults and forcelosures which resulted in decline in securities backed by mortgages but now the euro zone crisis has threaten the Indian Economy in the following ways:

 Capital Inflows from the Foreign Institutional Invetsors(FII) is marked with high volatility

 Exports to Euro natiions which are India’s favourite trade destination after USA, has seen a sharp decline.

 Fall in FII investments can anytime lead to inflationary pressures and building of asset bubble just as in US during 2007. (Sriram)

Secondly, the Arab Swing is likely to have deep impact on Indian Economy

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