While historians can slice the past into countless slices, in terms of transformational change, there have been only a few inflexion points in post-independence banking in India. The first was the enactment of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 which brought in a comprehensive and formal structure of bank regulation and supervision in India.
The nationalization of banks in our country marked the second such point. It generated forces that took banking from an elite class to the masses. It led to the establishment of a very substantial infrastructure across the geographical expanse of the sub-continent and was thus a critical trigger for financial outreach of institutions and empowerment of the common man.