India falls in WEF's financial development index

India’s ranking went down four places to 40th in 2012, compared with the previous year in an index compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to track financial development of 62 countries due to poor enforcement of contracts and lack of liberalisation. The break-up of Financial Development Index showed that India ranked 9th in non-banking financial services and capital markets tracked by the index, but the country lost out in terms of banking financial services standing at 45th place.

The WEF report said that though quite a few emerging market banks engage in foreign adventures, they tend to focus on small acquisitions, often to service local customers abroad or to offer services to migrants. In this concern it cited State Bank of India and ICICI Bank for having undertaken expansions in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

The reason behind these expansions are to facilitate increasing trade and investment flows between India and other countries, to provide foreign currency denominated loans to the overseas affiliates of Indian companies,and to provide remittance and retail credit services for Indian expatriates, the report noted.

Weak results in the institutional and business environment pillars continued to be driven by an inability to enforce contracts, a low degree of financial sector liberalization, inadequate infrastructure, and a high cost of doing business-- these were largely responsible for the decline in India's ranking in the Index, the WEF report said.

Hong Kong topped the index for the second consecutive year, followed by the US, the UK, Singapore, Australia, Canada. There was no change in the ranking of the first six places this year as against last year.

"The Financial Development Report shows that financial systems in advanced and emerging economies are stalling," said Giancarlo Bruno, Senior Director at the World Economic Forum. "Macroeconomic uncertainty, as well as concerns related to regulation, contributes to inhibiting the financial industry from funding much-needed growth," Bruno added.

The report came a few days after the Doing Business Report 2013 by the World Bank ranked India at a low position of 132 out of 185 countries in 2013 report, same as 2012 . Its ranking came down in 7 of the 10 parameters.