How We Did It

As 2019/20 was coming to a close, India went in for a severe lockdown. Banks had to test their business continuity plans as the pandemic was globally spreading from China to Europe and the US to Asia. The immediate strategy was to raise capital, initiate a stress test of portfolio and help customers. In a challenging work-from-home environment, Business Today-KPMG started the annual survey of picking the best banks and fintechs. The six-month long process started with knowledge partner KPMG studying annual reports and inviting self-nomination from banks, Small Finance Banks (SFBs) and fintechs for quantitative and qualitative analysis.

New features were introduced in the study. For the first time, the study included SFBs for both quantitative analysis and qualitative factors. Banks' qualitative awards were expanded from Best in Innovation and Fintech Engagement to Best in Talent & Workforce and Best in Enterprise Resilience. A special recognition-Lifetime Achievement Award was also introduced. In the Fintech category, lending Fintechs have not been rated this year due to the pandemic impact and insufficient data in the public domain regarding the financial performance, asset quality and liquidity levels. The Best in Financial inclusion category is now subsumed in the previous category of SFBs, whose objective is to achieve financial inclusion.

The next step was to put the findings before an independent jury to pick up the nine awards. The jury comprised of Shailesh Haribhakti, an independent director on the board of many companies and an eminent Chartered Accountant; Gunit Chadha, ex-CEO, Asia-Pacific region of Deutsche Bank AG & Founder, APAC Financial Services; Chet Kamat, Managing Director & CEO, Oracle Financial Services Software; N. Sivaraman, Managing Director & Group CEO, ICRA Ratings and Ranu Vohra, Co-founder & Executive Vice chairman of Avendus Capital.

The jury debated the various categories at length with focus on long-term sustainability of innovations and Fintech engagement initiatives and the larger impact on operational efficiencies. The jury also discussed the business model transformation where the banks are able to direct customers from branches to digital model. For Fintechs, the jury was clear that these start-ups have to last for long and cannot be a flash in the pan. The capital position of Fintechs was also discussed. The jury also appreciated the efforts of some public sector banks as they have to work under various constraints. The jury decided to create a special award as Best PSB, which went to the State Bank of India. This increased the jury awards to 10. Here is the detailed methodology for BT -KPMG Best Bank survey 2020.

There were two award categories - payments and value-added services segment. The key parameters considered for evaluation of fintech players were company health (years of operation, revenue generated per employee), funding maturity, business volumes of the company, differentiation (basis business models, product features, IP and technology, key focus and solutions) and adoption levels across customer segments and geographies; along with industrial partnerships.