The Reserve Bank of India today released its Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2001-02. The Report gives a detailed account of the performance of commercial banks, co-operative banks, financial institutions and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). The Report also gives information on developments in the policy environment and in the regulatory and supervisory framework applicable to these financial entities. The Report is divided into five chapters and contains detailed statistical tables on various parameters of financial performance of the banks and financial institutions.

The first chapter on 'Banking Developments and Perspectives' provides an overview of the policy initiatives undertaken in the banking sector during 2001-02 and a perspective on strengthening of prudential norms and introduction of structural changes designed to improve the efficiency of the banking system.

The second chapter on Developments in Commercial Banking' provides an analysis of the financial performance of scheduled commercial banks in the aggregate and separately for the major banking groups, viz., public sector banks, new and old private sector banks and foreign banks, in terms of important financial indicators, such as, income, expenditure, profits, spread, non-performing assets and capital to risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR). In addition, the chapter details a disaggregated picture of income-expenditure statement of commercial banks. For public sector banks, in particular, their overall CRAR, details of public equities and the present levels of shareholding of Government/Reserve Bank of India and the break-up of profits are highlighted in the Report.

Major developments and the regulatory initiatives relating to co-operative credit institutions undertaken during 2001-02, including the role played by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) are discussed in the third chapter on 'Developments in Co-operative Banking'. Special discussions in this chapter include implementation of prudential norms for the co-operative banking sector and strengthening of norms on trading in government securities by co-operative banks. Furthermore, the chapter also discusses developments relating to micro finance and recent initiatives for dealing with NPA problems of the credit co-operatives.

Chapter four on 'Financial Institutions' discusses the constraints being faced by the financial institutions (FIs) and the structural changes taking place in this segment of the financial sector. The focus of the regulatory and supervisory policy changes during the year under review, as delineated in the Report, has been the strengthening of prudential norms.

The final chapter on 'Non-Banking Financial Companies' provides an overview of various components of NBFCs, their regulatory framework and their performance during the year. The details regarding public deposits with respect to various categories of NBFCs, interest rate, maturity pattern and regional distribution and financial performance of NBFCs for the year 2001-02 have been analysed. The policy developments and performance of primary dealers are new additions to this chapter.

The Report is also available on the RBI website (www.rbi.org.in).