October 12, 2009

In a world without Lehman, big may no longer be the best as far as banks go. With bigger banks slowing down their loan and deposit growth mid-size banks are now clawing to the top. HDFC Bank has been spotted as the strongest bank in Asia-Pacific followed by state-owned players Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Union Bank of India, which has been ranked seventh in a survey conducted by Asian Banker, a company that provides information for the financial services industry.

Surprisingly, the survey has ranked the country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, at No. 42. Last year’s list of top-20 banks included 10 banks from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. But this year’s survey features only two banks — Australian bank Westpac Banking Corp and Citi Hong Kong —from this bigger markets. Interestingly, among the Indian lenders, two PSU banks — Corporation Bank (11) and Bank of India (18) — besides the private bank Axis (19) find place in the list.