Banking in India has been going retail since CITI and Standard Chartered Bank made their foray into retail banking in this country, in 1986. Before this, retail banking was in existence in a general banking form. Spicer and Oppenheim, the UK based, renowned consultant group, had said in 1987 that, as far as Retail Banking is concerned, in India, “Sky is the limit.” Since then, this mega retail market in India has witnessed accelerated growth year-on-year and entry of a long line of intense competition with an array of new products, strategies and human skills. Standing close to the end of another decade in the twenty-first century, we see retail banking in yet another avatar, where day-to-day banking transactions and guiding laws/ practices have taken the back seat. The main focus has shifted to strategies, channel management, variety of products, service quality, handling competition, Human Resource etc. In fact, Retail Banking is the most interesting subject in Banking Science at present, dealing with and driven by behavioural pattern of people, community by community, segment by segment. Its cornerstone is human psychology. While there are a number of books in the market on day to day banking operations and procedures, we hardly find any attempt to unfold a threadbare discussion on how mature is retail banking, after almost four decades of its growth in India. What is or should retail banking be or what we can expected from it? We hardly find any attempt to study human psychology in retail banking. The areas covered in this book on retail banking are: A) Retail Banking B) Technology in Retail Banking C) Human Resource in Retail Banking The book “Retail – The Lifestyle Banking” is a sincere effort not only to explore the spirit of this business vertical in India but also to assess how human life and retail banking are married together by the touch of time. At the end of it, retail banking revolves around the expectations of individuals and the delivery of those expectations.
