According to a McKinsey study, the Indian retail banking market’s annual revenues are expected to grow to US$ 16.5 billion by the year 2010. At present, they stand at US$ 6.4 billion.

The study also offers some interesting insights. For example, Indian retail banking customers have shown a high level of loyalty towards Indian domestic banks. Government owned banks dominate the Indian banking sector with 75% of the total assets and vast branch networks. State Bank of India, which is government owned and is India’s largest bank, has more than 9,000 branches. On the other hand, ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, has around 600 branches.

According to the study, foreign banks hoping to have a significant presence in India, would have to accommodate a preference among Indian customers for dealing with people rather than machines.