Source: ET Bureau
Performances of several high street lenders such as Bank of Baroda, Citi Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank were deemed ‘average’ in MeitY’s scorecard
Private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, along with Fino Payments Bank led the pack of Indian banks in enabling digitization of country’s payment ecosystem in the month of February, a ranking chart issued by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to banks accessed by ET showed.
Performances of several high street lenders such as Bank of Baroda, Citi Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank were deemed ‘average’ whereas Deutsche Bank, Union Bank of India and Bandhan Bank were relegated to the ‘unsatisfactory’ category in MeitY’s scorecard.
ICICI Banks, HDFC Bank were ranked first and second respectively with scores of 79 out of 100 with Fino Bank at third with a score of 76. Oriental Bank and Axis Bank took fourth and fifth rank closely followed by country’s largest lender State Bank of India in the ranking chart with a score of 72 on 100.
This overall rating is based on multiple factors such as percentage of digital transactions achieved, Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Aadhar Enabled Payment Systems activation (AePS) and the digitization of the respective merchant networks of these banks.
A total of 14 banks who scored above 66 were deemed ‘good’ whereas 27 banks with scores between 47-64 were deemed ‘average’ and 9 banks with scores below 44 were called out for being ‘unsatisfactory,’ the MeitY chart showed.
These scores assume significance more than ever, as government and regulators have been pushing digital payments as a ‘safer’ payment option over cash for consumers to transact as the country attempts to reduce all forms of physical contact in its bid to reduce the spread of covid-19.
It is to be noted that these scores are for the month of February and March scores on how banks fared digitally over the lockdown period would be disclosed in the first week of May.
