The objective of the study is to have comparative study between retail banking and private banking and also to find out the most preferred banking sector among them. for the above study a questionnaire was designed and the same was provided to the respondents for their valuable inputs. some of the inputs were taken from survey in the form of hard copies. all the aspects of the study included introduction of the study, objective of the study, research methodology, literature review , data interpretation and analysis, findings, suggestions and recommendations. the study suggests that retail banking is ahead of the private sector banks. the main reasons according to the study are the trust and reliability factor and the location of the branch (financial indus ion policy of reserve bank of india)