Indian banking opaque, warm and airborne: SNL
No fewer than five changes of ownership of banks in India are listed by researcher SNL Financial as having an "undisclosed buyer", an interesting aspect of a banking market where Australia's ANZ, for one, may be on the prowl.A list released yesterday by the researchers details nineteen changes in ownership of banks since 2008.The total value of those 19 banks was 180 billion Indian rupees (more than A$3 billion).It's only one measure of vibrancy in a fast growing and increasingly productive market.SNL said total unconsolidated loans at the six largest Indian banks, by total assets, more than doubled to 29.6 trillion rupees in the year to June 2014.In 2010 total assets for the six was 14.7 trillion rupees."In this growth trajectory, India's largest private sector banks have outgrown most of their state-owned peers in terms of financial and stock performance," SNL said. The only two private sector banks in the group, Mumbai-based HDFC Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd, recorded total returns of 199 per cent and 118 per cent respectively over the last five years.