RBI head expects Indian lenders to be in top 100 global banks list

PTI | New Delhi

India will soon have more domestic lenders featured in the top 100 global banks list, given the pace of economic expansion and growth in the banking system, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Thursday.

Interacting with the students after delivering VKRV Rao Memorial Lecture at the Delhi School of Economics here, the governor said the RBI cannot put a number of big banks India should have in the global list.

Expressing optimism, Malhotra said, “…There are many banks in the public sector space and in private sector…The pace at which they are growing, I think it is only a matter of time that we will have a number of banks, quite a few banks, in the top hundred banks of the world”.

Currently, only State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank appear among the world’s top 100 banks, ranked 43rd and 73rd, respectively.

PSU banks’ cumulative profit rose to a record level of Rs 1.78 lakh crore in the fiscal year ended March 2025, a growth of 26 per cent over the previous year.

All 12 public sector banks had earned a total profit of Rs 1.41 lakh crore in FY24.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the country needs big and world-class banks, and discussions are on with the Reserve Bank and lenders in this regard.

“It is not by creating from those which exist today…Just by amalgamation that can also be one of the routes, but you need an ecosystem and an environment in which more banks can operate and operate to grow. So, that environment is actually well established in India, but I needed to be more dynamic. So, some work is happening on it,” she had said.

In a bid to create bigger banks, the government in the past had done two rounds of consolidation. In the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking space, the government, in August 2019, had announced four major mergers of public sector banks, bringing down their total number to 12 from 27 in 2017.

Effective April 1, 2020, United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce were merged with Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank was merged with Canara Bank; Allahabad Bank was amalgamated with Indian Bank; and Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank were consolidated with Union Bank of India.

In 2019, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda.

Prior to this, the government had merged five associate banks of SBI and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the State Bank of India. This was done in April 2017 with the intent to make SBI much bigger.

Besides, as part of the privatisation exercise, the government in January 2019 sold its controlling 51 per cent stake in IDBI Bank to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

Subsequently, the government and LIC announced plans for the strategic sale of their stake in IDBI Bank.

In October 2022, both shareholders had invited EoI (Expression of Interest) from investors for privatising IDBI Bank by selling a total of 60.72 per cent stake. This includes a 30.48 per cent stake of the government and 30.24 per cent of LIC.

In January 2023, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) received multiple EoIs for IDBI Bank.

Paving the way for the sale of IDBI Bank, Sebi in August 2025 has approved the reclassification of Life Insurance Corporation as a public shareholder from promoter of the bank on completion of strategic divestment in the lender.