Banks are the lifeblood of an economy. Structure and strength of banking industry of a country has a direct bearing on its economic growth. Banks offer a large gamut of financial products and services to retail customers such as savings account, deposits, loans, ATMs, debit and credit cards, cheque and draft facility, locker facility, universal banking, internet banking, and mobile banking etc. and it is really difficult to imagine the life of individuals without these services in today‘s world. As banks offer more or less similar types of products and services, it takes strategic thinking and lot of efforts on the part of a bank and its employees to carve a niche for itself and make its customers really satisfied.
This study is an attempt to find out the level of satisfaction of retail banking consumers regarding the services and operations of three most prominent private sector banks operating in Gwalior city i.e. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. Researchers have constructed satisfaction index of retail banking consumers of these three banks related to eleven important parameters. Then, a comparison has been drawn among these banks on the basis of these satisfaction index values. For this purpose, researchers have conducted a survey of 300 retail banking consumers of Gwalior. The study reveals that although there is a tough competition among these three banks, HDFC Bank has fared better vis-à-vis other two competitors on most of the parameters. Overall satisfaction index of HDFC Bank is also higher in comparison to ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.