For rankings based on pure financial performance data was taken from published annual reports of banks
for FY22 to FY25, except for no. of branches data for a few foreign banks which was sourced from their
official websites.
The survey covered 53 scheduled commercial banks that had published annual reports in the public
domain or provided their annual reports at the time of conducting the survey prior to October 31, 2025.
Foreign Banks with balance sheet size of less than Rs. 25,000 crore as on March 31, 2025 were not
considered for the survey. Also not covered were scheduled commercial banks whose financial
statements were not available with us or which had not completed three years of operations in India as on
March 31, 2025 or were involved in mergers in the last 3 years or were under liquidation.
Ranking process
The banks were divided between ‘Indian Banks’ (consisting of public and private sector banks), ‘Foreign
Banks’ (branches of foreign banks operating in India) and Indian Small Finance Banks. Indian Banks
were further classified based on balance sheet size as on March 31, 2025.
Group I: Indian banks with balance sheet size of more than or equal to Rs. 500,000 crore;
Group II: Indian banks with balance sheet size of more than Rs. 200,000 crore and less than Rs. 500,000
crore;
Group III: Indian banks with balance sheet size of less than or equal to Rs. 200,000 crore;
Group IV: Foreign banks with balance sheet size of more than or equal to Rs 25,000 crore;
Group V: Indian Small Finance Banks.
Ranking parameters
The banks were judged on three parameters – Growth, Size and Strength – divided into 36 sub-
parameters (39 sub-parameters for foreign banks):
A. Growth
There were 12 sub-parameters (14 sub-parameters for foreign banks) in this category, which included
growth over FY24 in total deposits, alongside three-year* compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of
total deposits; growth over FY24 in current account saving account (CASA) deposits, alongside three-
year* CAGR of CASA deposits; growth over FY24 in loans and advances, alongside three-year* CAGR in
loans and advances; growth over FY24 in fee income (commission, exchange and brokerage income plus
miscellaneous income), alongside three-year* CAGR in fee income; growth over FY24 in operating profit,
alongside three-year* CAGR in operating profit; and absolute increase in market share of deposits and of
CASA balances; additional parameters for foreign banks: growth over FY24 in saving account (SA)
deposits, alongside three-year CAGR of SA deposits.
* two-year for Shivalik Small Finance Bank Limited and Unity Small Finance Bank Limited
B. Size
There were 3 sub-parameters in this category, which included size of total deposits, size of operating
profits and size of balance sheet as at March 31, 2025.
C. Strength
There were 4 overarching sub-parameters in this category, each with further sub-divisions as set out
below:
a. Quality of assets:
Increase in gross net performing assets (NPAs) %: Additions to gross NPAs during the year as
percentage of average net loans and advances (i.e. average of closing balance of FY24 and FY25); NPA
coverage: provisioning as at
March 31, 2025 for NPAs as percentage of gross NPA closing balance; net NPAs as ratio of net
advances: gross NPAs closing balance net of provisioning as at March 31, 2025 expressed as
percentage of net advances; gross NPAs as ratio of gross advances: gross NPAs closing balance as at
March 31, 2025 expressed as percentage of gross advances; secured net advances (net of provisions) to
total net advances (net of provisions): Secured net advances to total net advances as at March 31, 2025;
deposits of 20 largest depositors as a percentage of total deposits, advances to
20 largest borrowers as a percentage of total advances, exposure to 20 largest borrowers/customers as a
percentage of total exposure.
Further, for determining rankings based on the provision coverage ratio parameter, banks having zero
NPAs and banks having a provision coverage ratio of 100 per cent were assigned the highest rank in that
parameter.
b. Productivity and efficiency:
Cost to income ratio: Operating expenditure as percentage of operating income; cost to average asset
ratio: operating expenditure as a percentage of average total assets (i.e. average of closing balance of
FY24 and FY25); absolute increase in return on assets: basis points increase in return on assets (net
profit over total assets) from FY24 to FY25; percentage increase in ratio of operating profit to total income
from FY24 to FY25; profit per employee; no. of branches in India as at March 31, 2025 for foreign banks.
c. Quality of earnings:
Return on assets: Ratio of net profit to average total assets (i.e. average of closing balance of FY24 and
FY25); fee income as percentage of total income; return on equity: reported net profit divided by average
net worth (i.e. average of closing balance of FY24 and FY25); net interest margin: total interest income
minus total interest expenses as percentage of average interest earning assets; penalties imposed by
RBI during the year.
d. Capital adequacy and liquidity coverage:
Capital adequacy ratio: Capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio for FY25; Tier-I capital: total of equity capital
and disclosed reserves; liquidity coverage ratio: ratio of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) to total net cash
outflows over the following 30 calendar days.
Final Scoring / Rating
For each bank a score was assigned for each of the 36 sub-parameters (39 sub-parameters for foreign
banks), based on its rank on those parameters. The score under each parameter was then multiplied by
the parameter's weight to arrive at the final score for a bank. The results were aggregated to arrive at the
final rankings based on the total score.
Banks not considered
In total, 35 banks were not considered for the survey in FY25 due to mergers, liquidation, non-availability
of annual reports in public domain for FY25 and foreign banks with balance sheet size of less than Rs.
25,000 crore.
Methodology – KPMG BT Best NBFC Survey 2025
Quantitative awards
For rankings based on pure financial performance, data was taken from published annual reports of
NBFCs for FY22 to FY25.
The survey included 26 non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) including housing finance companies
(HFCs), which were further divided into two sub-groups:
Group I: Upper layer NBFCs - 11 NBFCs out of 15 classified in the upper layer (NBFC-UL) by Reserve
Bank of India (RBI). 1 NBFC classified as core investment company and 3 NBFCs involved in mergers in
the last 3 years were not considered for the survey.
Group II: Housing finance companies (HFCs) with balance sheet size of Rs. 10,000 crore or more as on
March 31, 2025 (including 3 HFCs in the upper layer).
Ranking parameters
NBFCs were judged on three parameters – Growth, Size and Strength – divided into 29 sub-parameters
for upper layer NBFCs and 28 sub-parameters for HFCs:
D. Growth
There were 6 sub-parameters in this category, which included growth over FY24 in loans, alongside
three-year* compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in loans; growth over FY24 in borrowings, alongside
three-year* CAGR in borrowings and growth over FY24 in operating profit, alongside three-year* CAGR in
operating profit.
*two-year for Shriram Finance Limited and Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited
E. Size
There were 2 sub-parameters in this category, which included size of operating profits and size of
balance sheet as at March 31, 2025.
F. Strength
There were 5 overarching sub-parameters in this category, each with further sub-divisions as set out
below:
a. Quality of assets:
Increase in gross stage 3 loans ratio: Additions to gross stage 3 loans during the year as percentage of
average gross loans (i.e. average of closing balance of FY24 and FY25); Provision coverage ratio:
provisioning as at
March 31, 2025 for stage 3 loans as percentage of gross stage 3 loans as at March 31, 2025; net stage 3
loans as ratio of net loans: gross stage 3 loans closing balance net of provisioning expressed as
percentage of net loans as at
March 31, 2025; gross stage 3 loan ratio: gross stage 3 loan balance as percentage of gross loan
balance as at
March 31, 2025; impairment on loans to gross loans ratio: impairment on loans debited to the statement
of profit and loss including loans written off as bad debts (net of recoveries) during the year ended March
31, 2025 as percentage of gross loan balance as at March 31, 2025; gross stage 2 loan ratio: gross stage
2 loan balance as percentage of gross loan balance as at March 31, 2025; Secured loans to total loans:
Secured gross loans to total gross loans as at March 31, 2025 (only for upper layer NBFCs).
b. Productivity and efficiency:
Cost to income ratio: Operating expenditure as percentage of operating income; cost to average asset
ratio: operating expenditure as a percentage of average total assets (i.e. average of closing balance of
FY24 and FY25); absolute increase in return on assets: basis points increase in return on assets (net
profit over total assets) from FY24 to FY25 and percentage increase in ratio of operating profit to total
income from FY24 to FY25.
c. Quality of earnings:
Return on assets: Ratio of net profit to average total assets (i.e. average of closing balance of FY24 and
FY25); return on capital employed: reported net profit divided by average net worth (i.e. average of
closing balance of FY24 and FY25); net interest margin: total interest income minus total interest
expenses as percentage of average interest earning assets; penalties imposed by RBI and other
regulatory authorities during the year; amount involved in frauds reported during the year as required to
be disclosed by the Master Direction - Monitoring of Frauds in NBFCs (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016
issued by RBI*.
*NBFCs who have not provided fraud disclosure as required by RBI in their financial statements have been ranked the lowest.
d. Liability management:
Diversified funding mix; Debt equity ratio: total of debt securities, deposits, borrowings and subordinated
liabilities as a percentage of total equity share capital and other equity as at March 31, 2025.
e. Capital adequacy and liquidity coverage:
Capital adequacy ratio: Capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio for FY25; Tier-I capital: total of equity capital
and disclosed reserves; liquidity coverage ratio: ratio of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) to total net cash
outflows over the following 30 calendar days.
Final scoring / rating
For each NBFC, a score was assigned for each of the 29 sub-parameters for upper layer NBFCs and 28
sub-parameters for HFCs, based on its rank on those parameters. The score under each parameter was
then multiplied by the parameter's weight to arrive at the final score for a NBFC. The results were
aggregated to arrive at the final rankings based on the total score.
QUALITATIVE BANK INSTITUTIONAL AWARDS
Four qualitative awards recognised the initiatives and strategies undertaken by banks in the areas of
Innovation, Human capital excellence, Emerging tech and AI and Social impact; based on self-nomination
responses to the survey by banks.
i) Best Bank-Innovation award: Banks had to describe their innovation initiatives across the
five critical focus areas of customer experience, product innovation, business model, service
delivery and digital adoption. Every initiative was evaluated and ranked based on four key
parameters viz. area of impact, uniqueness of the solution, adoption of the solution and
impact created by the initiative.
ii) Best Bank- Human Capital Excellence award: All participating banks were evaluated on
interventions across four critical focus areas under
1. Technology as an enabler to drive employee experience throughout the employee
lifecycle
2. Innovation in talent acquisition
3. Innovation in talent management
4. Initiatives around diversity, equity, inclusion and governance
Each of these areas were further evaluated based on uniqueness of idea, breadth of
initiative, implementation evidence and impact achieved
iii) Best Bank-Emerging Tech and AI award - We evaluated the banks on the maturity of their
AI and emerging tech capability on six dimensions. These were strategy and vision,
technology and innovation, impact, partnerships, adoption and scale, and governance. Each
dimension had clearly defined criteria and weights that reflected their relative importance.
The assessment granularity looked at clarity of strategic intent, depth and scalability of
technology deployment, execution capability, demonstrable and measurable impact, strength
of partnerships and external recognition, breadth of enterprise-wide adoption, and robustness
of governance and responsible AI practices.
iv) Best Bank-Social Impact award:
Banks are evaluated and ranked on a composite scoring framework across three core social impact
pillars of Financial Inclusion, Community Focus, and Livelihood Enablement. Category-wise and
parameter-level weightages are assigned.
Key indicators assessed include access to formal banking, priority sector lending performance, credit
deployment to underserved segments (women entrepreneurs, self-help groups, marginal farmers and
vulnerable communities), scale and reach of CSR beneficiaries, convergence of government schemes,
rural and last-mile coverage, and initiatives across healthcare, education, livelihoods, and
environmental sustainability.
The banks are assessed based on quantitative metrics, qualitative disclosures, their responses to our
questions, and independent research-based parameters to capture both the scale and depth of social
impact.
BANK INDIVIDUAL AWARDS - BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION LEADER OF THE YEAR AWARD
This year, in addition to the institutional awards, BT KPMG Best Bank Survey also recognizes CEOs who
have undertaken bank-wide transformation and brought about significant growth to a Bank; based on self-
nomination responses to the survey by banks.
The process involved assessment of the transformation journey of CEOs across multiple parameters such
as leadership & vision, impact of the transformation and institutionalization, scalability and sustainability of
the transformation.
QUALITATIVE NBFC AWARDS (Large NBFCs with asset size greater than or equal to INR 10,000
crores)
i) Best Innovation award - Promising initiatives undertaken by large NBFCs across five focus
areas - customer experience, product innovation, business model, service delivery and digital
adoption - evaluated based on self-nomination responses to the survey floated by KPMG.
Similar to Best Bank innovation award, the entries received from respondents were evaluated
and ranked based on four key parameters viz. area of impact, uniqueness of the solution,
adoption of the solution and impact created by the initiative.
ii) Best Upper Layer NBFC - Human Capital Excellence award - All participating NBFCs
were evaluated on interventions across four critical focus areas under
1. Technology as an enabler to drive employee experience in the employee lifecycle
2. Innovation in talent acquisition
3. Innovation in talent management
4. Initiatives around diversity, equity, inclusion and governance
These four areas were further evaluated on uniqueness of idea, breadth of initiative,
implementation evidence and impact achieved.
QUALITATIVE AWARD: Best in Fintech Value Added Services
The evaluation methodology applied a structured, weighted scoring framework to assess organizational
maturity of the firms and their sustainability and impact. This was executed by using four assessment
lenses; company health, differentiation, scalability, and regulatory compliance, where each of the lens
was assigned weight with respect to their relative importance.
