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Best bank & corporate and investment bank: Kotak Mahindra Bank
Best bank for CSR: State Bank of India
Best bank for SMEs: YES Bank
Best digital bank: Axis Bank
Best international bank: Citi
Best private bank: Edelweiss Private Wealth Management
Kotak Mahindra Bank has a reputation in India for being almost infallible. Rival bankers hold the bank in high regard, especially for its business acumen, leadership, governance and deal-making ability.
Be it within corporate and investment banking, wealth management or retail banking, Kotak’s story has been one of consistent, steady and impressive improvement. And this year, it is Asiamoney’s best domestic bank in India, as well as the best corporate and investment bank.
The bank’s net profit rose from Rp34.6 billion ($533 million) in the financial year ending March 2016 to Rp49.4 billion last year – a remarkable 42.8% leap. Its return on equity increased by 2.8 percentage points from 11% to 13.8%, while return on average assets got a boost from 1.6% to 2%. It also managed to bring costs down; the cost-to-income ratio fell to 48% from 58%. Net interest income, meanwhile, improved to Rp81.3 billion from Rp69 billion.
Its performance stands out, especially when compared to its rival HDFC Bank, India’s largest private-sector bank by assets.
HDFC’s net profit was much higher at Rp145.5 billion for the financial year ending March 2017, but the numbers grew by a smaller 18% over the year. HDFC’s return on equity rose only marginally to 18.04% from 17.97%, while its cost-to-income ratio improved to 43.4%.
Take ICICI Bank as another example. Its net profit rose just a tiny 0.8% between the two financial years, while return on average equity actually declined from 1.49% to 1.35% in the year ending March 2017.
Kotak has traditionally been best known for the quality of its wholesale banking business. One thing that differentiates this operation is integration, says KVS Manian, who heads up corporate, institutional and investment banking.
“There are banks that are strong in their corporate bank piece and they have a strong balance sheet and can lend a large amount of money,” he says. “Then there are standalone investment banks that don’t have the corporate...