The Reserve Bank of India’s report of its internal working group on ownership guidelines and corporate structure of private sector banks has raised afresh the issue of allowing large corporate houses to own banks. Is this really a route worth pursuing? The lead edit explains the risks here. Debashis Basu suggests that the debate over licensing more banks or allowing corporate houses to own banks and proposals for other banking formats examined in the report are all technical issues. The real test of policies is whether they lead to better customer experience by way of improving banking services at lower relative cost