![]() |
INDIA | |
Best Bank: HDFC Bank |
HDFC Bank continues to set the standards against which other Indian domestic banks are compared. In the year to March 31, 2022 – a difficult environment for many in financial services – HDFC’s profit after tax rose 14.6% to the equivalent of $4.88 billion.
Deposits grew 12.7%, borrowings 31.6% and total assets 14.2% in a year in which HDFC delivered 16.9% return on equity.
In a challenging environment, retail and treasury profit fell, but was more than compensated for by a knockout 38.6% growth in the wholesale banking business. And through all of this, non-performing loans – consistently the lowest in the industry through Covid – fell to just 1.17% gross.
![sashidhar-jagdishan-HDFC-official-960.jpg](https://assets.euromoneydigital.com/dims4/default/e9ff000/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x694+0+0/resize/800x578!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feuromoney-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa3%2F24%2Fe2c49b5147598febc4a83a93a34e%2Fsashidhar-jagdishan-hdfc-official-960.jpg)
HDFC Bank, led by chief executive Sashidhar Jagdishan, has managed this so consistently over the years by doing the simple things right. It has steered clear of scandal, its risk-management division is peerless and it never does anything stupid.
Based on this sturdy foundation, it has then found the best things to excel at: the largest cash-management player in the country, for example, and a leader in supply-chain financing, as well as a local bank of choice for multinational corporations operating in India. A steadfast commitment to digital will help keep it ahead of the pack.