Sector Snapshot · Banks

India's Banking System Goes Fully Digital

A fast-read primer on India's banking sector — the backdrop against which we benchmark every company's cost structure in this category.

Rs 26.84 lakh cr
UPI transaction value, Feb 2026
20.39 bn
UPI transaction volume, Feb 2026
49%
UPI's share of global real-time payments
Rs 2,08,36,572 cr
Total bank credit, Feb 2026
65%
Digital payment share projected by 2026 (BCG)

Reach Is Expanding on Every Front

More machines, more digital rails, more of the country brought into the formal banking system.

ATM Deployment (million machines)

2022 → 2024

1.24m
2022
1.46m
2024

Structure of the Banking System

Number of institutions by category

12
PSU Banks
21
Private Banks
44
Foreign Banks
11
Small Finance Banks

What's Pushing the Sector Forward

Digital infrastructure, steady credit growth, and supportive policy are reshaping the sector.

Digital Leadership
  • UPI is the world's largest real-time payment system (IMF, Dec 2025)
  • UPI accounts for 49% of global real-time payment transactions
  • Digital payments projected to reach 65% of transactions by 2026
Business Fundamentals
  • Loan growth averaged 11.77% between 2012 and 2025
  • India's fintech industry (~US$110bn in 2024) projected to reach ~US$420bn by 2029
Policy Support
  • RBI cut the policy repo rate to 5.5% in June 2025
  • Unified Lending Interface (ULI) launched to widen credit access

Recent Developments

A sample of the industry-wide and policy moves shaping the sector through early 2026.

Companies We Benchmark in This Sector

Listed Indian Banks companies in tDoBe's cost-benchmarking coverage.

HDFC Bank
ICICI Bank
SBI
Kotak Mahindra Bank
Axis Bank
Union Bank of India
Punjab National Bank
Bank of Baroda
Canara Bank
Indian Bank
IDBI Bank
Federal Bank
AU Small Finance
IndusInd Bank
IDFC First Bank
Yes Bank
Indian Overseas Bank
Bank of India

The Cost Benchmark — What We Actually FoundtDoBe Think Report

The market facts above are public background. What follows is tDoBe's own work: every "Other Expenses" line from these companies' own financial records, read by hand and sorted into one clear set of categories — not a keyword search, not each company's own way of reporting it.

9.1%
tDoBe Average — Other Expenses as % of Total Income
2.4×
Gap between the highest and lowest company
8
Cost categories, sorted by meaning
5.3%
Biggest single category — Miscellaneous & Others
FY24/25
Latest available financial records

Where Companies Land — Total Other Expenses

Each mark is one company's total Other Expenses as % of Total Income. No company is named here.

9.1%
0%5%10%15%20%

tDoBe Average by Cost Category

Ranked from biggest to smallest.

Miscellaneous & Others
5.3%
Insurance
1.3%
Rent & Occupancy
1.0%
Repairs & Maintenance
0.7%
Communication
0.2%
Total Other Expenses
9.1%
Where the Cost Really Sits

For banks, Other Expenses is dominated by one bucket, Miscellaneous & Others, at roughly 5.3% of Total Income. Insurance and Rent & Occupancy are the next largest, each under 1.3% — everything else is smaller still.

Banks Are Unusually Consistent

At 2.4x, the gap between the highest and lowest bank here is far narrower than most sectors we've covered. Scale and regulation push large public- and private-sector banks toward a similar cost structure.

Why the Comparison Uses Total Income

Banks don't report a ‘net revenue’ line the way a manufacturer does — their core business is interest income. We use Total Income (interest earned plus other income), the standard base for bank cost ratios, and read every cost line from each bank's own standalone financial statements.

See Where Your Own Company Stands

This is the free, sector-wide view. It tells you where Banks stands as a whole — not where your own company stands against it, category by category, in rupees.

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A below-average number is a reason to call too — the benchmark keeps improving as we go.

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Compiled from public government and industry sources, February 2026 update · Figures rounded · tDoBe sector snapshot, for informational purposes · Cost Benchmark findings compiled from companies' own financial records, FY2024/25.