Due to increasing competition in retail banking, understanding the customer perception about service quality is becoming indispensable. The private sector banks are posing a very stiff competition to the public sector banks through their initiatives for meeting customer expectations and gaining a cutting edge. This is reflected by the increasing market share and better profitability of private banks in comparison to that of public sector banks. At the same time, public sector banks have also responded to the challenges posed by the private sector banks through conscious efforts to enhance their service quality. This study compares public sector banks and private sector banks in terms of user perception of their retail banking services.

Banking in India has witnessed remarkable changes and development since the onset of the processes of liberalization, globalization and privatization. The challenges ahead for banks have greatly increased with increasing competition and the growing demand for a greater variety and superior quality of banking services. The growth of the retail banking industry is one area which has generated a lot of interest primarily because of the entry of many private sector banks and foreign banks, resulting in the availability of a wide variety of innovative products and services for the customers.

competition, customer, perception, service, quality, private sector, initiatives, market, profitability, public sector, Banking, development, liberalization, globalization , privatization, industry, innovative, products