India to witness job downpour?

Only two days back I got talking to two of my friends from the banking industry about the RBI policies and the opening of the banking sector in 2009. And the possible M&A between Barclays and ABN Amro makes headlines today. It’s a good move by Barclays to enter the market and be visible for next two years before the sector opens up in April 2009. Current policy by RBI doesn’t allow any new entrant to get into retail business without having a rural presence. A bank like Barclays, one of the largest financial services company from UK would possibly not want to dilute it image by entering the rural market at this point in time.

By acquiring ABN Amro, Barclay also might be looking at strengthening its position vis-à-vis the other players in the market like Standard Chartered, Citibank and Deutsche Bank of which Deutsche bank is said to be sitting pretty in the wealth management segment.

Year 2009 is going to be exciting. We will possibly have fewer but larger banks with M&As hitting headlines quite frequent. All said, it will rain jobs in India. The fresh batches at business schools can possibly look at career in the banking industry which would be “the industry” of 2009 as they pass out.