Dun & Bradstreet launches the 9th edition of India’s Leading BFSI Companies 2017

The publication profiles the leading players of the BFSI sector with an annual total income of Rs. 250 mn and above in FY16

Mumbai, February 24, 2017: Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the world’s leading provider of global business information, knowledge and insight in association with The New India Assurance Co. Ltd., today held the Ninth edition of ‘India’s leading BFSI Companies and Awards 2017’. On the occasion, Dun & Bradstreet launched ‘India’s Leading BFSI Companies 2017’ – a compendium outlining the challenges and opportunities for the Indian BFSI sector and its participants.

Delivering the welcome address, Kaushal Sampat, President & Managing Director – India, Dun & Bradstreet, said, “The Government’s ambitious target of achieving 25 billion digital transactions by FY18 certainly marks the high level of confidence in the BFSI sector’s ability in assimilating technology for serving customers in a better way. The registration of financial market intermediaries such as mutual funds, brokers, portfolio managers, etc. to be completely made online by SEBI is yet another indication of the regulator’s support for digital initiatives. And finally, demonetization is certainly a very audacious and bold move towards cashless economy and would push more Indians to adopt digital payments.”

Speaking on the occasion, Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, BSE Ltd, said, “It is indisputable that technology has become crucial to how business is conducted not just in India, but globally. Technology has become more sophisticated in nature and bringing down the turnaround time and therefore boosting productivity. It is also evolving at a much faster rate as compared to 25 years ago. The technology wave is coming faster now which has led to a tactical shift in the business environment. Early on, the incumbents ruled the playing field. Now, the playing field has tilted in favour of the new entrants and they show the promise of becoming much larger and sought after than the incumbents. The existing players – be it a traditional organization or a new age business – have to break out of the status quo. We as individuals are also heavily reliant on technology on a day to day basis and update ourselves as and when the technology develops. Why should businesses be any different? As a practice, we must take change head on and make organizations more attuned to change for the survival of business.”

Also addressing the gathering, R.K. Nair, Former Member, Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority, India, said, “To strengthen the market infrastructure we need to look at the best practices followed by others,  look at our best practices and adopt the one which suits the need of the hour. Government is focusing more on banking the unbanked, funding the unfunded, securing the unsecured and pensioning the unpensioned. The major challenge for the regulators is  to mitigate the risk to protect the interests of investor and empower them.”

The event also witnessed a roundtable discussion by eminent names from the Indian BFSI industry on the theme – “Role of Fintech in Building the ‘Main Frame’ for an Omni-Channel customer experience in the BFSI sector”. The panelists included Vishal Kapoor – CEO, IFDC Asset Management, Nitin Jain – CEO, Global Asset & Wealth Management, Edelweiss Financial Services, Pushan Mahapatra – MD & CEO, SBI General Insurance, Latha Ayyar – COO, Bharti AXA Life Insurance and John Weinschenk, General Manager – Applications & Security BU, Spirent Communications India Pvt. Ltd. The panelists presented their views in presence of accomplished as well as aspiring audience from the Indian BFSI fraternity.

Commenting on the topic, Vishal Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, IDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd. said, “The key area to focus in #fintech is to meet the gap between what customer seeks and the company has to offer by providing a customer experienced focused structure. We should look for solutions that are better, faster and simpler to use, however the contrary has been in the practice by companies these days. With a mix of imagination and creativity customer experience can be attained.”

Also speaking as a panelist, Latha Ayyar, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, said, “To truly deliver an omni channel experience, we need to re-architect both at the cultural and at IT architecture level. IT transformation needs to be back to front.”

The Event concluded with a glittering award ceremony which felicitated several BFSI companies across the sector based on the D&B’s performance parameters.

‘India’s Leading BFSI Companies 2017’ : The publication highlights the growth prospects and drivers for the sector through a comprehensive industry review and analysis and also provides a comprehensive industry update on the below mentioned sectors.  It profiles the leading players in the Indian BFSI sector, with an annual income of Rs 250 mn and above in FY16. This year, we are featuring a total of 303 companies, comprising 88 banks, 119 non-banking financial companies and financial institutions, 53 insurance companies, 24 asset management companies, and 19 broking companies.

Key segmental highlights of the BFSI sector which form part of the publication:

Banking Sector:

• Advances growth of all profiled SCBs slowed down to 6.9% in FY16 from 9.7% in FY15.
• The growth in aggregate deposits moderated to 7.0% in FY16 from 10.6% in FY15. However, as we all know that after demonetization, the landscape has changed during Q3 FY17.
• The biggest concern is rising NPA; the gross NPAs of all SCBs sharply increased to 7.7% as of March 2016 compared to 4.4% in March 2015.

NBFCs and FIs:

• The total income of the profiled NBFCs and FIs grew by 7.7% in FY16 as against 15% in FY15
• On other hand, profit of these NBFCs remained nearly flat as against 14% growth in FY15
• Net profit margin slowed down slightly from 17.6% in FY15 to 16% in FY16

Indian Capital Markets:

• The total income of the profiled broking companies declined by 2% in FY16 as against whopping growth of around 50% in FY15. Profit declined by around 25%in FY16.
• The net profit margin stood at 16% in FY16 as compared to 21% in the previous year

Insurance sector:

Life Insurance

• During FY16, the life insurers issued 26.7 million new policies as compared to 25.9 million policies in FY15
• The total premium income of the life insurance companies stood at Rs 3.7 trillion in FY16 – registering a growth of 12%.

Non-life Insurance

• The non-life insurers underwrote 122 million policies in FY16 as compared to 118 million policies in FY15.
• The total direct premium underwritten by the non-life insurers in India stood at Rs 963 billion in FY16 – registering a growth of 14%.

Mutual Funds:

• The profiled AMCs showed 31% growth in both income and profit in FY16
• Average Assets under Management (AAUM) grew by 17% at the end of the fourth quarter of FY16 on y-o-y basis.

Winners of the D&B – India’s Leading BFSI Companies and Awards 2017