'INDIA IS AT AN EXTREMELY SWEET SPOT'

The jury members of the BT-KPMG Survey of India's Best Banks and NBFCs discuss developments in the banking sector and more

- SIDDHARTH ZARABI

THE JURY MEMBERS for the BT-KPMG Survey of India's Best Banks and NBFCs recently held a wide-ranging discussion, moderated by Siddharth Zarabi, Editor of Business Today, on the country's financial sector. The jury was headed by Jayant Sinha, Former Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Former Minister of State for Finance, Government of India, and its other members were Dinesh Kumar Khara, former Chairman of the State Bank of India; Kalpana Morparia, Former Chairman of J.P. Morgan, South & Southeast Asia; Gunit Chadha, Founder & MD of APAC Financial Services and Former CEO of Deutsche Bank, Asia-Pacific; and Subhash Chandra Garg, Former Economic Affairs Secretary and Finance Secretary, shared their views on various aspects of the banking sector. Edited excerpts:

As we head into 2025, where does India's banking system stand?

Sinha: The Indian financial system is doing extraordinarily well right now. The hard work of the last 10 years to restore strength and resilience to the Indian financial system is paying off.

Whether we look at our public sector banks, our private banks, or NBFCs, all are doing very, very well in terms of growth, profitability, non-performing assets (NPAs), and also in terms of the services that they are delivering to customers.

And the innovation that we are seeing is quite remarkable. We are also pushing the envelope in terms of what is possible for customers as well.

One of the remarkable features in the most recent quarter for the top four banks is a return on equity of 16-20%. Indian banks are running a very healthy book. How did that happen?