Mint awards best BFSI firms in gala ceremony

Mumbai: The 16th edition of the annual Mint BFSI Summit and Awards culminated in a gala ceremony where executives of 13 companies from diverse sectors of the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry received awards of excellence from veteran banker K. V. Kamath.

While ICICI Bank was awarded the best among large banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank was adjudged best among mid-sized banks. Thrissur-based CSB Bank was the winner among small banks, while AU Small Finance Bank was the best small finance bank.

The five-member jury comprised R. Doraiswamy, managing director, Life Insurance Corporation; Cyril Shroff, managing partner of law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas; Keki Mistry, additional and non-executive (non-independent) director, HDFC Bank; Amish Mehta, managing director and chief executive, Crisil Ltd; and Nithya Easwaran, managing director, Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt. Ltd.

Mint’s knowledge partners in this exercise were howindialives.com and Fisdom.

That apart, Bajaj Finance received the award for best large NBFC (non-banking financial company), Manappuram Finance got the best mid-size NBFC award, and CreditAccess Grameen was adjudged the best among small non-bank lenders.

Being an integral part of the BFSI industry, Mint also presented seven awards to the best among the insurance and mutual fund companies. The insurers were divided into two groups—life and non-life.

HDFC Life Insurance Co. was awarded the best among large life insurers, while Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Co. won the award for the best mid-size insurer. 

Among non-life insurers, SBI General Insurance Co. was the best among large insurers, while Chola MS General Insurance Co. received the award in the mid-size category. Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company was awarded the best among standalone health insurers.

“We do not do things differently, it’s the customer that we focus on. Customers are always very important. I think the focus on the customer is paramount and as long as you are focused there is no way that your growth will not happen,” said Vineet Arora, chief operating officer, HDFC Life.

Given the growing importance of mutual funds and the kind of investor interest they have generated among Indians, Mint also recognized the role played by asset management companies. Mutual funds were categorized as actively-managed equity and actively-managed debt funds. PPFAS Mutual Fund was adjudged the winner in the actively-managed equity category and HDFC Mutual fund won the award for being the best in the actively-managed fixed income category.

As reported on 8 January, Mint presented before the jury the mathematics and rankings in all categories based on public data. The jury then brought in the qualitative and market intelligence aspects into the conversation to pick winners in each category. Lasting for nearly two hours on a Saturday afternoon in December, the closed-door meeting saw the jury intensely deliberate before deciding on the winners. Some members recused themselves in certain segments to avoid conflict of interest.