As of April 2024, HDFC Bank has a market capitalization of $145 billion, making it the third-largest company on the Indian stock exchanges.[17] It is also the
sixteenth largest employer in India with over 173,000 employees, following its
takeover of parent company
HDFC.[18][19]
History
HDFC Bank was incorporated in 1994 as a subsidiary of
HDFC Ltd, which received an 'in principle' approval from the RBI to set up a bank in the private sector, as part of its
liberalization of the Indian banking industry.[20][21] The bank commenced operations in January 1995, with its registered office in
Mumbai.[22] Its first corporate office and a full-service branch at Sandoz House,
Worli, was inaugurated by the then
Union Finance Minister,
Manmohan Singh.[citation needed]
In February 2000,
Times Bank merged with HDFC Bank, which was India's first-ever voluntary merger of banks.[23] Times Bank was established by India's largest media conglomerate,
The Times Group.[24]
In 2008, HDFC Bank acquired the
Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP) for ₹9,510 crore (US$2.19 billion) in a
share-swap deal, reportedly the largest acquisition in the Indian financial sector at the time.[26]
In 2021, the bank acquired a 9.99% stake in Ferbine, an entity promoted by
Tata Group, to operate a pan-India umbrella entity for retail payment systems, similar to the
National Payments Corporation of India.[27]
HDFC Ltd–HDFC Bank merger
On 4 April 2022,
HDFC Ltd announced that it would merge with HDFC Bank, marking India's largest-ever
M&A deal.[28][29] As part of the merger, HDFC Ltd would transfer its
home loan portfolio to HDFC Bank, while the bank offered depositors of HDFC Ltd the choice of either withdrawing their money or renewing their deposits with the bank at the
interest rate that the bank was then offering.[30]
On 1 July 2023, the merger of HDFC Ltd with HDFC Bank was completed.[31][32] Consequently, HDFC Bank had a
market capitalisation of $154 billion, becoming the seventh most valuable bank in the world. HDFC Bank also became one of the
world's top 100 banking companies by total assets.[33][34]
The combined entity had a customer base of 120 million, surpassing the population of Germany in size.[35] The merger resulted in a substantial increase in bank headcount, with the workforce totaling 177,000 employees. The merged entity became the second-largest bank in India, trailing only the
State Bank of India in terms of assets.[36] The number of branches increased to 8,300.[37]
Shares of HDFC Ltd were delisted and shareholders were allotted 42 shares of HDFC Bank for every 25 shares of HDFC Ltd held,[38] leading to an increase in the equity capital of HDFC Bank.[39]
Operations
As of March 2024, HDFC Bank's distribution network included 8,735 branches and 20,938 ATMs (cash recyclers; cash deposit and withdrawal) spread throughout 3,836 cities and villages. The distribution network of HDFC Ltd., which consists of 737 locations and includes 214 offices of HDFC Sales Private Limited, has been integrated into the network of the Bank.[40]
HDFC Bank is the sole private bank operating in the union territory of
Lakshadweep after opening a branch in
Kavaratti island.[41]
Products and services
HDFC Bank provides a number of products and services including
wholesale banking,
retail banking, treasury, auto loans, two-wheeler loans,
personal loans, loans against property, consumer durable loan, lifestyle loan and
credit cards. Along with this various digital products are PayZapp and SmartBUY.[42]
Subsidiaries and associates
Notable subsidiaries and associate companies of HDFC Bank include:
HDFC Bank's Parivartan initiative spent ₹535 crore in FY 2019–20.[54]
HDFC Bank spent ₹6349.1 million towards Parivartan, in FY 2020-21. Out of ₹6349 million, over ₹1.10 billion was allocated and used towards initiatives focused on
COVID-19 relief.[55]
On 2 December 2020, the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered HDFC Bank to temporarily halt the issuance of new credit cards and all planned activities under the bank's Digital 2.0 program, citing incidents of outages in the bank's internet banking, mobile banking and payment utility services.[56][57]
On 29 January 2020, RBI imposed a monetary penalty on HDFC Bank for failure to undertake ongoing due diligence in case of 39 current accounts opened for bidding in the
initial public offer.[58]
A HDFC Bank manager was arrested on charges of fraud, involving a sum of ₹5941,000 in
Odisha.[59]
Altico Capital and
Dubai's
Mashreq Bank have approached RBI, accusing HDFC Bank of violating regulatory provisions by debiting part of the funds the company had raised through external commercial borrowing (ECB) and parked at the bank. They claimed that HDFC bank's decision to transfer money from the account may be a violation of the RBI's end-use rule.[60]
On 27 May 2021, RBI imposed a penalty of ₹100 million on HDFC Bank for deficiencies in regulatory compliances with regard to its auto loan portfolio. The said penalty was imposed with regard to the contraventions of certain provisions of the
Banking Regulation Act, 1949.[61]
In March 2023,
HDB Financial Services suffered a breach exposing the data of more than 70 million customers, including email addresses, names, dates of birth, phone numbers, genders, post codes and loan information belonging to the customers.[62]
Awards and recognition
2016
Best Banking Performer, India in 2016 by Global Brands Magazine Award.[63]
Best Performing Branch in
Microfinance among private sector banks by
NABARD, 2016, Award for Best Performance in Microfinance[64]
KPMG study of India's Best Banks, Bank of the year & best
digital banking initiative award 2016[65]
BrandZ Rankings, Most Valued brand in India for third successive year[66]
FinanceAsia poll on Asia's Best Companies 2015, Best managed public company – India[67]
Best Bank: New Private Sector – FE Best Bank awards[68]
Winner in Innovation and Inclusiveness in Priority Sector Lending – 11th Inclusive Finance India Awards (IFI) 2019[69]
Ranked 1st in 2019 BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands HDFC Bank was featured for the 6th consecutive year.[70]
Among The Most Honored Company List, Institutional Investor All-Asia (ex-Japan) Executive Team 2019 survey[71]
India's Best Bank, Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2019[72]
Bank of the Year and Best Large Bank, Business Today – Money Today Financial Awards 2019[73]
Best Bank in India 2019, by Global magazine FinanceAsia.[74]
Ranked 60th in 2019 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands[75] HDFC Bank was featured BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2019 for the 5th consecutive year. The Bank's brand value has gone up from $20.87 billion in 2018 to $22.70 billion in 2019.[citation needed]
Best Large Bank & Fastest Growing Large Bank in 2019, by Business World Magna Awards[76]
On 12 January 2022 HDFC BANK has been adjudged 'Best Private Bank in India' at the Global Private Banking Awards 2021, Organised by Professional Wealth Management (PWM)
2022
Best Bank In India: Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2022[79]
^"RBI releases 2022 list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs)". rbi.org.in. RBI. 2 January 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023. State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank continue to be identified as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs), under the same bucketing structure as in the 2021 list of D-SIBs.
^"HDFC Bank Ltd"(PDF). careratings.com. CARE Ratings. 2 May 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023. The Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) was among the first institutions to receive an 'in principle' approval from RBI to set up a bank in the private sector, as part of the RBI's liberalization of the Indian banking industry in 1994. The bank was incorporated in August 1994 in the name of 'HDFC Bank Limited' (HBL), with its registered office in Mumbai, India.
^"livemint". HDFC Bank is still India's most valuable brand: Brandz ranking. 22 September 2016.
Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.