In banking, like horse-breeding, parentage matters. If you have strong and healthy parents, chances are you'll be like them too. A merger with UTI Bank doesn't give Gelli's baby a real parent, just a foster parent. Yet leviathan UTI's institutional backing will be a vital ingredient for making it big in the banking business. But parentage isn't the only thing that matters.
Size helps too.
On its own, GTB had been quite a successful player, with 78 branches and Rs 6,198 crore worth of deposits. Its range of products, spanning corporate as well as retail banking, has been successful and it also has non-fund businesses like clearing operations and depository and custodial services. Yet, all that still makes GTB a boutique bank. Smallness can hamper growth and the sharp superbanker that he is, Gelli realises that. We could have survived on our own.