Beats more than 50 banks across 13 countries in Asia Pacific region
HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector bank in the country, has been declared the ”Strongest Bank in Asia Pacific”. In a survey conducted by the Asian Banker magazine, the bank won this honour, beating more than 50 banks across 13 countries in the Asia Pacific region.
The Top 10 has 3 banks each from India and China, 2 from Hong Kong, and one each from Singapore and Australia, according to the magazine. Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (2nd), China’s Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (4th), Bank of Beijing (5th), China Construction Bank (6th), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (9th) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (10th) are some of the prominent names in the Top 10 list that has only two other Indian Banks, namely Axis Bank and Punjab National Bank.
Banks were rigorously evaluated on the six parameters of scale of assets, balance sheet growth of net loans and deposits, risk management of the banks’ operations, profitability and its sustainability, strength and credibility of loans disbursed and liquidity of assets to meet negative events requiring cash outflow. HDFC Bank scored 4 out of 5 points. Full review of the rankings is available on http://www.theasianbanker.com/bankmetrics/
According to the Survey, HDFC Bank excelled in its risk profile measuring 98 on the Asian Banker Risk Index as compared to its peers whose average (40) was less than half its score. The Bank’s stronger-than-average capital adequacy further fortified its ability to withstand any shocks, while its CASA of over 50% allowed margin cushioning in the face of rising interest rate.
Despite achieving a loan growth of 160% between 2007 and 2010, HDFC Bank’s gross NPL ratio remained relatively constant and below 1.5%. This is in stark contrast to HDFC Bank’s private domestic peers’ gross NPL of 2.6% in 2007 and 2.3% in 2010, the magazine observed.
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Recognizing HDFC Bank’s higher profitability the magazine said, “...with assets of $49.4 billion at the end of March 2010, HDFC Bank was still able to achieve a profitability of 1.6% (regional average 1.1%) in return on assets (ROA), driven primarily by strong core-operating profit from improvement in loan disbursals and margin, compared to the aggregated ROA of its domestic and regional peers of 1.0% and 0.6% respectively. HDFC Bank has a very strong risk profile reflected by its low volatility of returns (risk index of 98 vs. 38 regional average) and high capital adequacy ratio (17.5% vs 15.6% average).“
Accepting the award on behalf of the Bank, Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank said, “In our industry, to be recognized as a strong bank is always an honour. To emerge as the strongest bank amongst a peer group of all banks in the Asia Pacific region, including some of the largest banks in the world, makes the recognition particularly special.”
About HDFC BANK
Promoted in 1995 by Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), India's leading housing finance company, HDFC Bank is one of India's premier banks providing a wide range of financial products and services to its 21 million customers across hundreds of Indian cities using multiple distribution channels including a pan-India network of branches, ATMs, phone banking, net banking and mobile banking. Within a relatively short span of time, the bank has emerged as a leading player in retail banking, wholesale banking, and treasury operations, its three principal business segments.
The bank’s competitive strength clearly lies in the use of technology and the ability to deliver world-class service with rapid response time. Over the last 16 years, the bank has successfully gained market share in its target customer franchises while maintaining healthy profitability and asset quality.
As of March 31, 2011, the Bank had a distribution network with 1,986 branches and 5,471 ATMs in 996 cities.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2011, the Bank’s total income was INR 67.24 billion (Rs 6,724.3 crore) as against INR 50.04 billion (Rs 5003.9 crore) for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Net revenues (net interest income plus other income) were INR 40.95 billion (Rs 4,095.2 crore) for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, an increase of 24.0% over INR 33.02 billion (Rs 3,302.1 crore) for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Net Profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 was INR 11.15 billion (Rs 1114.7 crore), up by 33.2% over the corresponding quarter ended March 31, 2010.
The Bank’s total balance sheet size increased by 24.7% to INR 2773.53 billion (Rs 277,353 crore) as of March 31, 2011. Total deposits were INR 2085.86 billion (Rs 208,586 crore), up by 24.6% over March 31, 2010.
Total income for the year ended March 31, 2011 were INR 242.63 billion (Rs 24263.4 crore).
Leading Indian and international publications have recognized the bank for its performance and quality.
For more information please log on to: www.hdfcbank.com