Banking : Introduction
Banks - the reservoir of wealth, play an important role in our day-to-day
life as they are the organisations that take care of the money of individuals
and Corporates. These government authorized financial establishments are
the best place to get the capital requirements or save money by different
means like opening savings, current and fixed deposit accounts. Banks
pay interest on the deposited money, provide loans to people for all their
needs such as vehicle, home, business, education and offer services like
foreign currency exchange, ATM's etc. The word bank was derived from the
Italian word ' Banco' which means desk or bench, over which the transactions
had happened during the earlier days.
In India, the banking system was introduced in 1786 with the establishment
of General bank and the Bank of Hindustan, which are now out of date.
In 1806, East India Company established Bank of Calcutta which later become
Bank of Bengal, and Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras in the respective
years of 1840 and 1843. These three banks were merged in 1921 to form
the Imperial Bank of India and after independence it was nationalized
and became the State Bank of India (SBI) which is the oldest bank in India.
The oldest Joint Stock bank in India, Allahabad Bank was started in 1865
and in 1894 the Punjab National Bank, the first complete Indian bank was
established. There after, a number of banks came up such as the Bank of
India, Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Indian Bank
and Bank of Mysore between the years 1906 and 1913. The Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) was set up in 1935 and as per the Central Banking Authority,
the RBI has got the powers for the supervision of banking in India. The
government has formed SBI as the major agent of RBI and it handle all
the transactions of Union and State Governments of the country. Of the
88 Scheduled Commercial Banks in India, there are 27 Public sector banks,
31 Private banks and 38 Foreign/ Multinational banks and all these banks
together have a combined network of over 53,000 branches and 17,000 ATMs.
Banking, the business of handling money has become one of the most challenging
sectors in the country. This well-paid, secure job is a coveted career
choice of all times. Banking is a profession not only meant for Commerce/
Economics students but is open for all graduates with any academic background.
By the liberalization of banking system and mushrooming of private and
foreign banks, banking has become a wonderful profession that offer numerous
career options. The responsibilities of the banking professionals vary
according to the position.
With the boom in the IT field, a new dimension has been added to the face
of banking. Earlier people have to wait for hours to make transactions
like depositing, withdrawal, collection of drafts etc. But now all the
operations in the banks have been computerized to provide more efficient
service to the customers. Facilities and services like net banking, phone
banking, credit cards, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) services, online
information on the internet, home banking etc offers the customers help
to make their life easier and simpler. Emergence of these technologies
and the entry of financial institutions into short-term lending business
provide an ample scope in this field and has created the requirement of
more professionals.
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