The Reserve Bank of India has been bringing out 'Statistical Tables Relating to Banks in India'. The publication presents comprehensive data relating to scheduled commercial banks and has been well received. A need has been expressed by the user community for making available at a single place certain important parameters for each of the commercial banks across time period.

The publication, 'A Profile of Banks', the first of its kind, is an endeavour to meet this requirement. Data covered in the publication are number of offices, staff strength, profitability parameters like business per employee, profit per employee, return on assets, cost of intermediation like wage ratio as percentage to total expenses, net NPA ratio, and important balance sheet and profit and loss account items like deposits, advances and earnings and expenses. Data are presented in a bank-centric way with user-friendliness as the main objective. The publication contains bank-wise data for the years 2001-02 to 2004-05. All parameters given in this publication are culled from the respective 'Statistical Tables Relating to Banks in India'.

The publication is priced at Rs.100/- (normal) and Rs.130/- (inclusive of postage) for inland and US $55 (inclusive of courier charges) and US $20 (inclusive of registered airmail) for abroad.