Is Your Money Safe? Why Indians Are Losing Their Trust In Banks

Nationalisation Of Indian Banks & Privatisation

• January 1, 1949 Reserve Bank of India nationalised

• July 1969 14 commercial banks  including Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank, Allahabad Bank, Dena Bank nationalised

• October 1975 Regional rural banks set up to promote financial inclusion

• April 1980 Six more commercial banks­—Andhra Bank, Commercial Bank, New Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab and Sindh Bank and Vijaya Bank­—nationalised

• 1990s Private-sector players allowed to open banks based on 1991 Narsimham Committee recommendations. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank among others given licence. Several private banks later put under moratorium due to mismanagement and some merged with PSBs or bought over by other private banks.

• 1991-2010 25 banks became non-existent between 1991 to 2010. These ­include Bank of Punjab, Ganesh Bank of Kurundwad, UFJ Bank Limited, United Western Bank, Lord Krishna Bank, Sangli Bank, Bharat Overseas Bank, Parur Central Bank, Purbanchal Bank, Bank of Karad Limited, Kashinath Seth Bank, Punjab Co-operative Bank Limited, Bari Doab Bank Limited, Bareilly Bank, 20th Century Finance Corporation Limited, British Bank of Middle East, Sikkim Bank Limited.

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Sitara Devi, 65, is mighty worried these days. A former ­tea­cher based in Pune, Devi thou­ght she had her future fin­ancially secured with all her retirement benefits, amounting to over Rs 25 lakh, deposited at the Punjab Maharashtra Cooperative Bank till it was hit by a massive fraud a couple of months ago, forcing the country’s banking regulator to clamp severe restrictions on transactions by customers. In her 50s, Anjali works as a domestic help in the Nat­ional Capital Region and she is worried too. Her relatives have been warning Anjali that she could lose all her deposits at a United Bank of India (UBI) branch at her native village near Bhopal when it merges with two other state-run banks, mostly likely by next April. Anjali does not und­erstand how banks function, but ­Geeta Das, 77, a retired doctor residing in South Delhi, has a fairly good idea. Das has her own worries over the health of the public-sector bank in which she had an account for over 20 years. She recently opened an ­account with a private-sector bank, joining many neighbours in her­ ­colony, as a back-up protection for her hard-earned money.