The Reserve Bank foresees a "competitive, efficient and heterogeneous" banking sector with four distinct sets of banks dominating the landscape over the next decade, its governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday.
There will be large banks having presence across the country and the world, mid-size banks present across the economy, small finance banks/regional rural banks/cooperatives to take care of the small borrowers and digital players, he said.
The comments come days after the RBI appointed a panel headed by former deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath on bank licences to evaluate applications for universal banks and small finance banks. An internal panel had recently recommended allowing deep-pocketed corporates into the banking fray, something the RBI had been averse to for long.
A final view on the controversial proposal is yet to be taken.