However, it was not until seven years later, in March 1934, that the enactment came through. Thus began the exciting and glorious journey of our Bank on 1st April 1935. The Reserve Bank of India was first established as a shareholders’ bank. Subsequently, it was nationalized in 1949.
As India became independent in 1947, RBI's “tryst with nation building” ran parallel to the nation's “tryst with destiny”. The year 1949 also marked the enactment of the Banking Regulation Act which mandated a comprehensive and formal structure of bank regulation and supervision in India. For the first two decades of India's independence, banking was largely concentrated in our cities and major towns.