Private Sector Banks in India

Private Sector Banks refer to those banks where most of the capital is in private hands. In India, there are two types of private sector banks viz. Old Private Sector Banks and New Private Sector Banks. Old private sector banks are those which existed in India at the time of nationalization of major banks but were not nationalized due to their small size or some other reason. After the banking reforms, these banks got license to continue and have existed in India along with new private banks and government banks.

Old Private Banks

At present, there are 12 old private sector banks in India as follows:

1. Catholic Syrian Bank
2. City Union Bank
3. Dhanlaxmi Bank
4. Federal Bank
5. Jammu and Kashmir Bank
6. Karnataka Bank
7. Karur Vysya Bank
8. Lakshmi Vilas Bank
9. Nainital Bank
10. Ratnakar Bank
11. South Indian Bank
12. Tamilnad Mercantile Bank

Among the above, Nainital Bank is a subsidiary of the Bank of Baroda, which has 98.57% stake in it.

Defunct Private Banks

Some other old generation private sector banks in India have merged with other banks. For example, Lord Krishna Bank merged with Centurion Bank of Punjab in 2007; Sangli Bank merged with ICICI Bank in 2006; Centurion Bank of Punjab merged with HDFC in 2008.More recently, in 2016, the ING Vysya Bank merged with Kotak Mahindra Bank, creating the fourth largest private sector bank in India.

New Private Sector Banks in India

The new private sector banks were incorporated as per the revised guidelines issued by the RBI regarding the entry of private sector banks in 1993. At present, there are nine new private sector banks as follows:

1. Axis Bank
2. Development Credit Bank (DCB Bank Ltd)
3. HDFC Bank
4. ICICI Bank
5. IndusInd Bank
6. Kotak Mahindra Bank
7. Yes Bank
8. IDFC
9. Bandhan Bank of Bandhan Financial Services.

Kindly note that all the old and new banks listed above are scheduled commercial banks.