The roots of the Indian banking industry go back to the 18th century when the first bank was established here. In 1969, the trend of nationalization of banks started and the economic reform of 1991 saw the privatization of the industry.
The sector is now mainly divided into public or private sector banks, regional banks, rural and cooperative banks. Since the scope of business is very high, foreign banks have also made their base in the country and extended their operations through robust branch network. The branches vary from retail banks, loan divisions (taking care of home loans, personal loans etc), and corporate banks (for bigger clients like other industry players).
The Reserve Bank of India is the central bank which acts as a regulator for all the other banks in India. The RBI has the sole authority to grant license, control credits, thereby functioning as a banker for all banks coming under it. The other noteworthy Indian banks are the State Bank of India which is a public sector bank, ICICI which is a private bank, IDBI, and HDFC bank. The list of foreign banks includes HSBC, American Express, ABN Amro Bank, Standard Chartered Bank etc. The presence of such a large banking network shows the pace of reforms set forth by the Indian govt. over the last decade in financial market, banking and non-banking sectors and their development.

