Title: Restructuring of banks and financial deepening: tracing the Indian discourse

Authors: Tara Nair

Addresses: Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad, 380060, India

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to critically review the discourse around differentiated banks, especially small finance banks, as gleaned from policy pronouncements, discussion papers, and reports of various committees instituted by the Reserve Bank of India and the central government. It is argued that there has been a definite shift in the imagination of financial inclusion as a process of market expansion aided by layered, private-sector led, risk-hungry, and highly competitive banking institutions. The paper analyses the various initiatives introduced since the mid-2000s to enlarge and diversify the banking infrastructure and discusses the plausible implications of these initiatives for making the financial sector more broad-based and inclusive.

Keywords: bank restructuring; financial markets; differentiated banks; small finance banks; SFBs; niche banks; financial inclusion.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2024.138637

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2024 Vol.37 No.2, pp.283 - 296

Received: 16 Mar 2020
Accepted: 06 Aug 2020
Published online: 22 May 2024 *

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