Banking in India is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Commercial Banks and Co-operative Banks are the two main categories of banks in the country. The commercial banking structure in India consists of:

• Scheduled Commercial Banks
• Unscheduled Banks

Scheduled commercial Banks constitute those banks which have been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934. Only those banks are included in this schedule which satisfy the criteria laid down by section 42 (60) of the Act.

Commercial Banks can be further divided into four classes:

• Public sector banks. There are 28 banks in the public sector, including the State Bank of India and its 7 associate banks.
• Private sector banks. There are 38 Private sector banks.
• Foreign Banks. The foreign banks number 24.
• Regional rural banks. 196 Regional rural banks.

Commercial banks are in the business of providing banking services to individuals, small businesses and large organizations. Commercial Banking provides clients with complete financial services. In addition to business services such as lines of credit, term loans, mortgage and lease financing, the area also provides international trade services, treasury services, investment management, employee benefits and insurance products, plus expertise in investment banking areas such as structured finance, syndicated lending, M&A advisory, corporate finance, risk management and asset-based finance.

Today's commercial banks are more diverse than ever. There is a wide range of opportunities in commercial banking, starting at the branch level where you might start out as a teller to a wide variety of other services such as leasing, credit card banking, international finance and trade credit.

An emphasis on technology and industry and product-specific support has created specialized career opportunities
Commercial Banking offers a wide range of proprietary web-based tools that help clients manage their financial affairs with ease and efficiency. There are specialized industry groups that offer high level of expertise on the specific financial issues affecting companies within each industry. Industry specialists often work along with account managers and product specialists on client teams to address the requirements of each transaction.

These jobs are exciting and offer excellent opportunities to learn about business, interact with people and build up a clientele. Commercial Banking professionals typically develop their client management skills early and build expertise across lines of business.

Eight Major Commercial Banks account for more than half of the share of the banking industry. These eight major banks are:

FY04 (Rs bn)	Advances	Market share
SBI	1,955	22.7%
ICICI Bank	631	7.3%
Canara Bank	476	5.5%
PNB	472	5.5%
Bank of India	458	5.3%
Bank of Baroda	356	4.1%
HDFC Bank	177	2.1%
Standard Chartered	162	1.9%
Total	4,687	54.4%

Considering only scheduled commercial banks

(Source: CRISIL)

Remaining 46% is occupied by rest of the players. If you are well-prepared and enthusiastic about entering the field, you are likely to find a wide variety of opportunities open to you.

Commercial Banking: Select Job Options

Credit Analyst: This is an entry level job which requires you to evaluate business and consumer loan applications made to your bank. Your duties include projecting a company's future cash flow, evaluating its current financial soundness, visiting and interacting with financial people at businesses and dealing with lenders. You will learn a lot about business in this job. Your success in this job will depend on your detail-orientedness, your knowledge of accounting and your ability to communicate.

Loan Officer: This is a highly desirable job in banking. This involves making loans to businesses and consumers. Being a loan officer requires that you have good selling skills, an ability to understand a business and a solid understanding of how banking works.

Branch Manager: You would be responsible for overseeing all activities at your branch including opening new accounts, loan origination, solving customer problems, foreign exchange and safe deposit boxes. Most importantly, you are responsible for establishing relations with customers. Many bank managers start as tellers or customer service representatives and rise up to this level.

Key things to have for this position are customer service skills, empathy, quantitative ability, strong work ethic, organization and a solid understanding of banking.

Trust Officer: This job requires a lot of counselling. In this job you would deliver trust services, financial products and advice to bank customers (often more upscale ones). This work will give you knowledge of business, investing, estate planning, taxes, and probate law.

Mortgage Banker: Your job will be to make mortgage loans to homebuyers and businesses. This involves heavy contact with real estate professionals, credit checks, and dealing with new buyers. Today, many loans are sold to other investors in the mortgage backed securities market. This job has a good future because an increasing fraction of the population is likely to buy houses in the future.

High Grades less important than work ethic: Banking attracts a diverse group of people. You don't have to be a superstar student with a phenomenal academic record. You do have to be detail oriented, unafraid to sell and conscientious.

It is generally not necessary to get an MBA degree for getting into commercial banking. But at the higher levels MBAs are preferred.

Marketing Types Wanted: A new business model which is spreading into banking is that of the marketing-oriented consumer products company. Banks are trying to build valuable brand images with consumer-oriented advertising and distinct product lines. If you have good marketing skills and have taken marketing courses, you will be well-suited to this new environment. Because of the increasing marketing orientation, many banks have also been paying large amount of money to lure product managers away from consumer products companies.

Other jobs in banking involve accounting, marketing and advertising, commercial card operations, securities transfer, wire operations, private banking, cash management services, installment loans, loan servicing, personnel, operations and communications.

Those banks which have the skill to market their products, generate new income streams, de-risk their government securities portfolio and build the right technology platform to support all activities will flourish in this competitive environment.

For Comments: psjamwal@amity.edu

The retail market for mortgages, credit cards, automobile loans and other consumer loans is continuously growing. The value of the retail market was US$9.7 billion in 1999. This value rose to US$36.7 billion in 2004 for India . These figures signify a growing market for jobs.

During the last decade, India has emerged as one of the biggest and fastest growing economies in the world. The strengthening of economy in India has been fueled by: liberalization policies of the government, growth of key economic sectors, development of an English-speaking, well-educated work force and the emergence of a middle class population.

The competitive environment in India presents both challenges and opportunities to global banks in Retail Banking. Entrenched domestic competitors and restrictive equity ownership ceilings imposed by the government create obstacles for banks trying to establish a foothold in India . Primary challenges include tough competition and government ceilings on foreign equity ownership. Yet, the opportunities are good for the Global Banks as they often have technological advantages, well-honed, efficient processes and appealing products and services.

The growth however will be organic as the merger and acquisition activity in the banking sector may remain limited by government regulation. This is difficult news for global banks that have relied on acquisitions as a market entry or expansion strategy and the growth therefore will be slow but steady. Unless the government shifts its posture on foreign equity ownership, global banks will have to rely on organic growth to expand their presence in India .

As global banks have experienced in the past, that for successfully competing in India they require a lot more than merely choosing the right market to target. It warrants a well-crafted strategy that addresses the numerous risks and challenges specific to India 's developing economy. The confluence of rapid economic development, elevated consumer purchasing power levels and an under served retail banking population position India as one of the most potential growth regions for the 21st Century.

Retail banking jobs are growing across banking, finance, accounting, insurance, legal, sales, marketing, IT, manufacturing, management consulting, startegy in the private sector as well as the public sector.

Students seeking career opportunities in this area should focus on the current well established players as the past decade has witnessed a number of well known Multinational Banks failing in India due to a poor understanding of the ground realities.

Banking institutions like the ICICI, HDFC, Centurion, Canara Bank, Indus Ind , ABN Amro, HSBC, SBI, Bank of Punjab, American Express and several other banks offer good opportunities for fresher as well as experienced professionals in this area.

The essential competencies besides educational qualifications at the entry level in Bank are:

• Result orientation
• Process Orientation
• Interpersonal Relationship mastery.
• Rational and Analytical thinking
• Capability to Innovate
• Team Spirit

In order to assess the above competencies most of the good Banks conduct Mental Ability Tests for candidates with 0-2 years of work experience to create a personality profile of the Applicant. The Mental Ability Test gives a fair and objective assessment of candidates’ skills in the areas of verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning & diagrammatic reasoning.  These are important skills for the entry level jobs and people who do well in these tests have been found to do well in their jobs.  These tests normally are of 2 hours duration. 

The Banking Sector has openings for bright young graduates, post graduates, and professionally qualified CA/ MBAs. These openings can be easily found on the web sites of most of the Banks.

Most of the modern Banks offer a tech-savvy, non-hierarchical, work environment where early responsibility and independent decision-making gives each employee an opportunity to reach his/her potential. High performing-high potential individuals are duly rewarded on the basis of merit and not just seniority.

For Comments: psjamwal@amity.edu