Saturday, 21 December 2024
ICICI Bank achieves strong risk calibrated profit growth to emerge as Strongest Bank in India in 2021
Apart from solid results in profitability and capitalisation, ICICI Bank demonstrated improved asset quality and sound liquidity.
- ICICI Bank emerged as the Strongest Bank in India in 2021
- Delivering better performance in profitability and capitalisation
- Digitisation and virtual relationship management enable the bank to better handle the crisis
Singapore, 21 October 2021 – ICICI Bank topped the ranking of Strongest Banks By Balance Sheet in India in 2021. ICICI Bank and others were recognised at The Asian Banker Strongest Banks By Balance Sheet Briefing and Recognition Virtual Ceremony 2021.
ICICI Bank is the strongest bank in India in 2021
The comprehensive annual evaluation captures the quality and sustainability of the balance sheets of banks in Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East, and Africa regions. The ranking is based on a detailed and transparent scorecard that evaluates commercial banks and financial holding companies in six areas of balance sheet financial performance, namely the ability to scale, balance sheet growth, risk profile, profitability, asset quality, and liquidity.
ICICI Bank emerged as the Strongest Bank in India
With a strength score of 3.19 out of 5, ICICI Bank is the 83rd strongest bank out of 500 banks in APAC. The bank achieved better results in profitability indicators and saw its capital position strengthen. These, together with the improvement in asset quality and sound liquidity buffers, helped boost its balance sheet strength.
Girish Sehgal, head of wealth management at ICICI Bank, in his acceptance speech said, “The entire credit for this award goes to my colleagues who work relentlessly across the branches and various offices of ICICI Bank towards making the customer journey as easy and seamless as possible”.
Delivering better performance in profitability and capitalisation
With a continuous focus on the strategic objective of risk calibrated profit growth, ICICI Bank managed to register strong results in the financial year ended 31 March 2021. Its return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) reached 1.4% and 13.6%, respectively. The ROA of Indian banks in the ranking averaged 0.67%, increasing from 0.29% in the previous year, bolstered by trading profits on bond portfolios that banks booked after the cut in policy rates, along with lower credit provisions. ICICI Bank has continued to enhance its deposit franchise and its ability to attract low-cost deposits. Its cost to income ratio (CIR) improved from 43.2% to 35%, the second lowest among its peers in India. HDFC Bank and State Bank of India recorded higher CIR of 40.8% and 64.4% respectively.
The bank also raised additional capital to strengthen its balance sheet, with capital adequacy ratio (CAR) up to 18.9% at the end of March 2021 from 15.8% in the year earlier. In India, average CAR of public and private sector banks was up from 13.6% and 16.7% to 14.7% and 18.5% respectively. The CAR of HDFC Bank and State Bank of India stood at 18.5% and 14% respectively.
Digitisation and virtual relationship management enable the bank to better handle the crisis
Sehgal said, “ICICI Bank is known for its digital progress among clients. This gave us a decent opportunity to ensure that all our products and processes are digitised and brought on mobile banking and internet banking platform. We launched a virtual relationship management platform that enabled our relationship teams to call customers amid social distancing norms that led to a slowdown in footfalls in the branches”.
With the increase in digitisation, the bank has seen cost come down while net promoter score moved up for any process or product which has been digitised. “The impetus is to capture the 360-degree banking from all customers. There is a huge opportunity. Going from personal banking towards business banking, or vice versa, to ensure that we capture the opportunities available. I think that should help in reducing the costs,” he added.
For video of award presentation and the winner's acceptance speech, click here.
For video of the Strongest Banks by Balance Sheet Briefing, click here.
About the Strongest Banks By Balance Sheet programme
The Asian Banker Strongest Banks By Balance Sheet is an annual assessment of the financial and business performance of the banking industry in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa regions. The assessment ranks the top performing banks in each country or territory by strength, an evaluation that is based on a belief that a strong bank demonstrates long-term profitability from its core businesses.
The scope and coverage for The Asian Banker Strongest Banks By Balance Sheet come from both the mature markets and the most promising emerging markets in the regions. The focus of the assessment is on commercial banks and financial holding companies with a significant proportion of activity in commercial banking. The assessment does not include central banks, policy banks or finance companies.
The winners are determined using a scorecard approach based on six crucial performance indicators rated on a scale of 0-5: scale, balance sheet growth, risk profile, profitability, asset quality, and liquidity.
About The Asian Banker
The Asian Banker is the region’s most authoritative provider of strategic business intelligence to the financial services community. The global research company has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Dubai, as well as representatives in London, New York, and San Francisco. It has a business model that revolves around three core business lines: publications, research services and forums. The company’s website is www.theasianbanker.com.
For further information, please contact:
Ms. Sue Kim
Marketing Manager
www.theasianbanker.com
