The pressures of COVID-19 could be accelerating the consolidation of the Indian corporate banking industry, as the market’s biggest banks prove themselves best positioned to help large and middle market companies overcome crisis disruptions.

Even before the start of the global pandemic, India’s corporate banking market was on a consolidation path, driven by regulators’ decisive steps to solidify the country’s banking sector and the rapid evolution and growth of the country’s leading private banks. When the pandemic sent the country into lockdown last year, companies needed immediate assistance from banks, at first to ensure financial stability and then to keep businesses running at a time when the economy was at a standstill and employees were stuck at home. For many companies, it was the largest banks that stepped in to help.

The large and middle market companies participating in the Coalition Greenwich 2021 research study rank State Bank of India (SBI) as having done the best job at helping to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. SBI was cited, along with leading private-sector banks, Axis and HDFC, and foreign banks, Citi and HSBC, as companies’ top sources of support during the crisis. The fact that India’s biggest banks were able to quickly marshal the financial, operational and technological capabilities required to provide that assistance is strengthening their relationships with Indian companies and widening the divide between themselves and their competitors.