Foreign Indian banks are more transparent than local peers

Their transparency compliance came close to perfect at 99% in 2017.

According to the 2017 banking survey of the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI), foreign banks scored 99% in transparency compliance, way above private banks' 80% and public sector banks' 63%.

The survey also showed that in a span of two years from 2015, Malaysian banks became less transparent (from 77% in 2015 to 71% in 2017). Private banks' transparency score declined from 83% in 2015 to 80%, whilst PSBs have the sharpest decline from 70% in 2015 to 63% in 2017. Foreign banks, however, improved from 97% in 2015 to 99% in 2017.

"Although, there is a significant decline in compliance under ‘Transparency’, the foreign banks have improved their compliance level almost close to perfect. As the overall score of PSBs as a group is much lower as compared with other groups, they need to improve their compliance under this parameters group too," BCSBI said.

When it comes to customer-centricity, foreign banks also improved from 89% in 2015 to 93% in 2017. On the other hand, private banks and PSBs became less focused on their customers' needs declining from 84% to 82% and 73% to 72% respectively in 2017.

In addressing grievances, it becomes an alternate scenario. Private banks improved from 84% in 2015 to 86% in 2017, as well as PSBs from 77% to 80%. Meanwhile, foreign banks' score in disposing grievances declined from 88% to 79%.