SBI, HDFC Bank bag 'Bank of the Year' award at BT-MT Financial Awards 2019

State-run State Bank of India (SBI) and private major HDFC Bank have jointly bagged the 'Bank of the Year' award at Business Today-Money Today Financial Awards 2019. While this is the first time SBI has won the award, for HDFC Bank, it was fifth year running. The latter has also bagged the 'Best Large Bank' award. On the other hand, SBI won the award for 'Best Innovation'.

Best bank awards in small bank, foreign bank and mid-sized bank categories were conferred to RBL Bank, JP Morgan India and Kotak Mahindra Bank, respectively.

In its 23rd edition, the Business Today-Money Today Financial Awards also honoured top performing fintech firms, mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund was awarded with the 'Best Fund House' tag, while HDFC Pension Management was given the 'Best Pension Fund' award.

Soumendra Nath Lahiri, CIO at L&T Mutual Fund and Suyash Choudhary, Head of Fixed Income at IDFC Mutual Fund, won the best fund managers award in equity and debt categories, respectively. The New India Assurance bagged award for the 'Best General Insurance Provider'. LIC was given the 'Best Life Insurance' title.

Creditmantri won the best fintech award for its value-added services, while Ezetap and Lending Kart won best fintech awards in payments and lending categories, respectively.

In his keynote address, Prosenjit Datta, Editor at Business Today talked about disruptions that mutual fund and insurance policy managers have had to deal with and yet how they emerged as winners.

He also highlighted the hard core issues that established banks faced all this while. "Some of the big banks of yore have got into serious trouble with non-performing assets because of lax risk assessment and over aggressive lending. The best banks have also had to deal with a situation wherein corporate credit offtake has been low, and technology is eating into margins," he said.

The guest of honour was Anand Sinha , former Deputy Governor of the RBI.

Speaking from a regulatory perspective, Sinha, who also served as a member on the board of SEBI, suggested the vulnerability comes from failure of corporate governance, risk management and unethical practices.

The other winners were Mirae Asset India Equity Fund and Kotak Corporate Bond Fund. They were awarded as 'Best Value Creators' in equity and debt categories, respectively.

L&T Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund won the best fund house in equity and debt categories, respectively. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and ICICI Lombard General Insurance were joint winners of the 'Best Motor Insurance' category.

HDFC Click 2 Protect 3D Plus bagged an award for 'Best Term Plan'; Bajaj Life Goal Assure won an award for 'Best Unit Link Insurance Plan'; Bank of Baroda won an award for being the 'Best Fintech Engagement'; PNB bagged award for the ' Best Financial Inclusion'. Star Health Insurance was conferred with the 'Best Health Insurance Provider' award.

The award ceremony, presented by ICICI Securities, began with an interesting panel discussion on 'How To Retire Rich'. The knowledge partner for the Best Bank and Fintech category was KPMG, Policy Bazaar was the knowledge partner for the insurance awards, while the knowledge partner for the mutual funds awards was ICRA Online.