Indian banks among best-performing lenders versus peers in Asia: S&P Global Market Intelligence

New Delhi [India], April 18 : Three Indian lenders made it to the list of top 50 banks by assets in the Asia-Pacific region in 2023, up from two in 2022, according to a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence. These Indian banks are the State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank.

According to the financial information and analytics firm, Indian banks have been among the best-performing lenders among peers in Asia. Improvement in financial metrics, coupled with high credit growth in a robust economic environment, has boosted banks' assets in recent years.

The aggregate assets of the lenders rose sharply by 50.5 per cent to USD 1.510 trillion in 2023, the report said.

According to it, a large part of the increase was due to the merger of HDFC Bank Ltd with its parent Housing Development Finance Corp in July 2022.

HDFC Bank's assets jumped 51.3 per cent to USD 466.35 billion after the merger, propelling the bank up 13 places to 33 in the top 50 ranking.

S&P Global Market Intelligence, quoting Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, noted that credit growth in India, currently the world's fastest-growing major economy, stood at 15.6 per cent as of December 29, 2023.

The credit growth was 14.9 per cent a year ago, according to Reserve Bank of India data, as reported by S&P.

According to India's official data, the country grew at a massive 8.4 per cent during the October-December quarter of the financial year 2023-24 and the country continued to remain the fastest-growing major economy.

The Indian economy grew 7.8 per cent and 7.6 per cent during the preceding two quarters - April-June and July-September.

India's economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22, respectively.

The central government expects the economy to grow at 7.6 per cent in the financial year that just ended in March.