Two years after the financial cataclysm rocked the global banking system, the banking sector in India is back in the reckoning. The performances of the banks for FY2009-10, as The Analyst Banking Special shows, reaffirm the belief that it pays to be conservative. The annual survey, which enters its seventh edition this year, also highlights that the year clearly belonged to the minnows of the banking world: the Hyderabad-based Andhra Bank tops the list in the PSB category, while Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, another South India-based bank, which is not even listed, beats private sector biggies like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank to emerge triumphant. The performances throw many more surprises as well. It would be no exaggeration to say that the financial world is a vastly different place after the crisis.

Exactly two years ago, in October 2008, when the banking edifices in the US and Europe received a crushing jolt, many would not have had any high hopes for the banking sector in India, which remains miniscule even now as compared to their developed market counterparts. For, the financial apocalypse was so sudden and its impact was so devastating that making an escape from it was not any easier. But the RBI's prudent measures and its timely interventions, and also banks' own precautionary measures helped them save the blushes from the financial tsunami. Now, even as the central bankers globally sit down to thrash out new safety norms to avert a repetition of similar crisis Indian banks are sitting pretty.

The annual survey of The Analyst Banking Special, which enters its seventh edition this year, aims to analyze the remarkable resilience that Indian banking sector has shown even amidst the worst crisis in modern times, individual bank's performances, the strategies and the vital takeaways. Using the highly acclaimed CAMEL Methodology, this study gauges performances of state-owned banks, private sector banks and foreign banks on the key parameters like Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings Quality and Liquidity.

The Analyst Magazine, Reserve Bank of India, RBI, Capital Adequacy, Banking Sector, Financial Tsunami, Foreign Banks, Private Sector Banks, Capital Adequacy Ratio, Public Sector Banks, Global Financial Crisis, Direct Marketing Agency, Customer Acquisition.