The top banks in India

The top bank in India – HDFC Bank.

Yes, there’s one bank that continues to roll better than all others – HDFC Bank. Once again, for the fifth year in a row, the Aditya Puri-led bank beat 76 others to emerge as the #1 player in the industry.

Fastest growing small bank – Yes Bank.

Among the small banks (balance sheet size less than RS 24,000 crore), YES Bank comes in at #2 right behind Punjab & Sind Bank. That means it has beaten other relatively young banks such as Rana Talwar’s Centurion Bank of Punjab, Uday Kotak’s Kotak Mahindra Bank, and the Hindujas’ IndusInd Bank to emerge as the fastest growing bank.

Fastest growing big bank – Axis Bank.

What would you call a bank that has grown its profits at 30 per cent or more in 28 of the last 30 quarters? At the least, a consistent performer. But what has earned P.J. Nayak-led Axis Bank (formerly UTI Bank) its distinction as the fastest growing big bank is its equally impressive growth in other areas such as deposits, and loans and advances.

The most efficient big bank – Federal Bank.

Our strength is technology coupled with human touch,” says Federal Bank Chairman and Managing Director M. Venugopalan. No wonder his Kerala-based private sector bank once again ranks as the most efficient big bank in this year’s BT-KPMG study of best banks.

The most efficient small bank – Karur Vysya Bank.

Karur Vysya is one of the older private sector players but a relatively new convert to technology (it introduced core banking solutions in 2005). Currently, the bank has 281 branches (and will expand to 300 in next two months), 279 ATMs of its own including 18 in rural areas and 108 in semi urban areas, and piggybacks on 10,000 other ATMs. Still, the bank is keen to build its physical presence. It plans to increase the number of branches to 300 shortly and create a pan-India presence.

Best small bank – Punjab & Sind Bank.

It’s been a dramatic story of turnaround at Punjab & Sind Bank from #7 in the small bank category (less than Rs 24,000 crore in balance sheet size) in our 2006 rankings, it has vaulted to the #1 position.