India needs larger banks, consolidation greater need: Deepak Parekh

"I think that the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) guidelines for grant of new licences are well thought-through and it seems that a lot of thinking has gone into it," Parekh told PTI.

However, a greater need of the hour in the Indian banking space is banks of large size and scale to match their international peers and consolidate their positions on the global league tables, Parekh said in a telephonic interview.

A veteran banker and well-respected industry leader, Parekh is Chairman of financial services giant HDFC Ltd whose group companies include leading private sector lender HDFC Bank.

When asked whether he feels that Indian banking sector needs more players, Parekh, however, said a greater need of the hour is banks with much larger size and scale.

"I have always said that we need consolidation, rather than more players in the Indian banking sector. "The need today is for more consolidation than the new banks, because what we require is large-scale banks," he said.

Asked if Indian banks need to match the size and scale of their international peers and consolidate their positions on global league tables, Parekh replied in affirmative and said: "We need scale for that and we would need consolidation to get the scale."

Parekh also said the Indian banking sector needs to address the issue of huge unbanked

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